Described in this thesis are methods of representing various types of robot workspace and robot workcell modeling methodology. Previous studies on robot workspace, such as reachable workspace and dexterous workspace, are briefly reviewed.
The concept of orientation-fixed workspace is newly introduced and a method of displaying ray graph is developed. Orientation-fixed workspace is workspace within which robot tool is reachable while maintaining a fixed orientation of tool. Checking orientation-fixed workspace is essential in workcell layout for robot welding. Ray graph to a given point is the set of points from which robot tool tip can be linearly moved to that point. The concept of ray graph is very useful in planning robot assembly insertion works.
A robot workcell modeling system has been implememted on an IBM PC. A robot workcell may consist of one or two robots, a positioner, and workpiece. Various types of robot workspace can be dispalyed over the layout scene so that more accurate evaluation of the proposed workcell is possible.
