Grant: Discovery Grants Program - Individual

This research program will develop an integrated optimization technology for parallel robots to achieve high accuracy, high adaptability and low cost towards a more industrial application and transformative innovation for new applications. The overall goal of the proposed research program is to develop a new technology which includes: (i) provide the knowledge and expertise in support of growing applications of parallel robotic systems; (ii) extend the current state of knowledge in advanced robotics to high performance robotic machines to enhance the existing production systems; (iii) facilitate the development of sustainable manufacturing systems by high performance reconfigurable parallel robotics. Specifically, four research objectives are defined for this research: (i) study the performance (accuracy) improvement for parallel robotic systems with multi-objective optimization methods; (ii) develop a novel optimal calibration method for parallel robotic systems including a new thermal effect error model; (iii) study a new control paradigm, called ""control through design"" for overall performance enhancement; and (iv) develop a new method for better adaptability (through robust design and robot reconfiguration). The technology to be developed by the proposed research program is based on two new paradigms: Integrated Optimization (IO) and Control through Design (CTD). The significance of the research lies in the development of new technologies that will lead to better design methodologies for next-generation robotic systems in manufacturing applications, as well as a higher potential to generate new technology of how to design and better manage manufacturing robotic systems, so that their performance can reach the new optimum.