The new KineMedic® is DLR light weight robotic arm
The new KineMedic® is DLR light weight robotic arm specially designed to perform dexterous hand actions in surgical interventions. This robot arm developed by German Aerospace has a much better payload-to-weight-ratio compared to robots today. It has 7 torque controlled redundant degree of freedom, giving it more flexibility and less collisions. It is compact and lightweight, that it to be mounted easily, yet stiff enough to perform high-precision operation. The joints are equipped with position and torque sensors for high-sensitive and precise movement using impedance-control.
This robotic system consists of 2 major components, the Arm and control module which includes external supply module. The 2 modules are connected by DC power cables and fiber optics for almost instant communications. The 7 joints of the robotic arm are arranged to a shoulder, an elbow and a wrist, each with intersecting axes. In order for high precision control, high performance communication bus is used to interact between the joints and its control circuits situated at the eternal supply.
The external control module is made up of DC power supply, emergency stop box and a personal computer for control. The controller used for control is a FPGA chip which is then connected to the computer via optical fiber wires. Calculations for the robotic control are done on the personal computer and not on the dedicated hardware.
From Rongjie (u0406232)
