Quanser 6-DOF Open-Architecture Robot

Quanser is presenting it's latest DENSO 6-axis articulated robot. The term 'articulated' is used for robots that consist of rotary/revolute joints. These joints are linked to each other in a serial configuration. The first three joints form an anthropomorphic arm while the second three form a wrist robot. This enables the robot to position and orient its end-effector within a large workspace, similarly to a human arm that can access any position and orientation within its reach, except that it has an extra joint.

This 6-Axis robot is open-architecture, powered by our real-time software, QUARC. QUARC's blocksets along with MATLAB/Simulink provide the user with an advanced user-friendly environment which facilitates and accelerates real-time programming of this robotic manipulator.

Quanser's DENSO 6-DOF Open-Architecture Robot has a wide and still growing range of applications, such as tele-operation tasks. It can be used in a robot-assisted surgery as an instrument holder or as a guidance system adding more precision and dexterity to the operation. Another medical applications in rehabilitation and nursing assistance come to mind as well.

In addition to medical applications, Quanser's DENSO 6-DOF Open-Architecture robot can be mounted on an unmanned vehicle as a camera/tool holder in an autonomous or semi-autonomous mission. Again, it can be tele-operated as a robotic manipulator, helping in remote or hazardous environments such as bomb disposal or mine sweeping scenarios. Users can also program the robot to do accurate automated tasks repeatedly in short cycle times. For instance, it can be programmed for such industrial tasks as assembling, welding, cutting, injection, and extraction.

Quanser's DENSO 6-DOF Open-Architecture robot has its place in university engineering labs: Using QUARC, this industrial robot can be rapidly interfaced in a fully open-architecture scenario. That makes it a perfect system to teach mechatronics, robotics, and mechanics. Plus, you can use it for research and development - for instance as a part of a humanoid robot combined with artificial intelligence.

In the above video we are using our high definition haptic device as a master robot to control the motions of the 6-Axis robot in the Cartesian workspace. This is called a bilateral teleoperation setup where the forces and torques at the tip of the robot are measured and applied back to the operator through the haptic device. In order to control the ball on my racket as it bounces up and down, I use the force feedback and apply a scaled motion command. The robot control loop is running at 8kHz while the force/torque sensing is at the rate of 10kHz. The robot is incredibly fast and precise. As a next step, we plan to play a real ping-pong match between robot and human, so stay tuned for this exciting video!

Quanser robot is made to be programmed by humans to assist humans with high speeds and accuracy.