Review of Technology, Application Status and Development Trend in Multi-arm Cooperative Robots

Abstract

As labour shortages and labour costs continue to rise, more and more robots are needed in growing numbers. In many application scenarios, the tasks are complex and varied, the application environment and the conditions are so varied that single-arm collaborative robots are no longer meet the requirements and multi-arm collaborative robotic systems have emerged as an important area for future development. Because of the short time frame for development, a great deal of work is still needed by developers. This research summarizes the current state of technology and applications of multi-arm collaborative robots in a more systematic way and reviews several influential aspects of multi-arm collaborative robots such as applications, mechanism and lightweight, dynamics and control, cooperative technology, and artificial intelligence. On this basis, six directions for future research and development of multi-armed collaborative robots are proposed, based on new developments in artificial intelligence and control, such as the development of application scenarios towards deep human-robot collaboration, more emphasis on high speed, high precision and high work-to-weight ratio in structures and components, and more emphasis on smooth design in dynamics. The collaborative robot system will also develop in a hierarchical and diversified manner, with control methods tending towards adaptive and flexible control and autonomous decision-making, and interaction tending towards multi-dimensional safety protection and natural interaction with multi-information fusion.