Position Modelling of a Palm Tree Climbing Robot (Pamtreebot)

Abstract

The end-effecter positions of a palm tree climbing robot have been modelled and tracked in this paper. In the introduction section, the significance of robots in specialized tasks, the necessity of the proposed pamtreebot for safer palm tree farming, the concept of position modelling and a review of previous researches were outlined. Next, the mechanical framework of the pamtreebot was presented and illustrated with a CAD drawing. To model the various positions of its limbs as it climbs, the forward kinematics equations for each limb posture were derived using the Denavit-Hartenberg convention and the required joint angles for each posture were also derived analytically from the forward kinematics equations hence the inverse kinematics. Finally, a path trajectory function is developed using ‘point-to-point motion technique’ and substituted into the inverse kinematics models to trace the time histories of the joint angles. The inverse kinematics results were compared to results from RoboAnalyzer software and they were similar.