Coordinated motion planning with calibration and offline programming for a manipulator-positioner system

A single industrial robot is sometimes not sufficient to achieve some complex tasks such as polishing or welding on complex surfaces. In this case, a positioner is usually employed as an auxiliary device, and their motion is required to be coordinated. This paper proposes a method for coordinated motion planning of a manipulator-positioner system which consists of one 6-DoF manipulator and one 2-DOF positioner. A coordinated kinematics model of the manipulator-positioner system is first established. Three-points calibration for the relative position of the positioner with respect to the manipulator is then presented. Complex paths are planned with AutoCAD and transformed into robotic language by an offline programming system. Finally, experiments in which writing letters on the moving plate of the positioner are conducted to verify the feasibility and effectiveness of the presented coordinated motion planning method and the offline programming system.