Robotic manipulator has the purpose of placing the bolting
end-effector to a target position to join a pair of beams and/or
column. Fig. 7 is the prototype of the robotic manipulator,
which will be attached on the front side of the cabin. At the end
of the z-directional frame, the bolting end-effector is attached.
The robotic manipulator has a gantry-type mechanism which
can generate 3-DOF motion with three motors and linear
guides. The three frames of the manipulation system are
exactly matched to three dimensional Cartesian coordinates, so
that it can be easily controlled with a simple control algorithm.
This robotic manipulator can guarantee the workspace of
830*830*300 mm² and the accuracy under tens of
micrometers. Considering the clearance between the diameters
of the bolt and the hole is approximately 3 mm, the accuracy of
the robotic manipulation system is fine enough. Fig. 8 shows
the bolting operation test using the robotic bolting device
developed in this research. It was confirmed that the bolting
operation was successfully performed through several bolting
tests.