Evaluation of a low-cost industrial robot

The development of a low cost industrial robot began at the College of Engineering at the University of Tennessee in 1986 with a sponsorship from International Business Machines (IBM). Over the six years since, the "UT Robot" has undergone several modifications and improvements as a result of the continued work of graduate students and faculty members with financial support coming from a variety of interested industrial sources. The robot had been developed to the point where serious consideration for an industrial application was taking place, but major unknowns were the capabilities of the robot itself. Thus, this study attempted to define the operating space, or operating characteristics, of the UT Robot given the current development status of the hardware and controlling software. This thesis specifically covers the authors work on the following areas: 1) Development and study of calibration and monitoring techniques for the purpose of robot positioning; 2) Determination of robot characteristics; 3) Identification of robot failure modes; 4) Corrective or pre-emptive action for failure modes.