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Chapter 1

Commercial Robot

Manipulators

This chapter sets the stage for this book by providing an overview of
commercially available robotic manipulators, sensors, and controllers. We
make the point that if one desires high performance flexible robotic workcells,
then it is necessary to design advanced control systems for robot manipulators
such as are found in this book.

1.1 Introduction

When studying advanced techniques for robot control, planning, sensors,
and human interfacing, it is important to be aware of the systems that are
commercially available. This allows one to develop new technology in the
context of existing technology, which allows one to implement the new
techniques on existing robotic systems.
A National Association of Manufacturer’s report [NAM 1998] states that
the two most important drivers for US commercial business manufacturing
success in the 1990’s have been reconfigurable manufacturing workcells and
local area networks in the factory. In this chapter we discuss flexible robotic
workcells, commercial robot configurations, commercial robot controllers,
information integration to the internet, and robot workcell sensors. More
information on these topics can be found in the Mechanical Engineering
Handbook [Lewis 1998] and the Computer Science Engineering Handbook
[Lewis and Fitzgerald 1997].

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Copyright © 2004 by Marcel Dekker, Inc.