Rigid Precision Reducers for Machining Industrial Robots

Abstract

Machining robots are expected to significantly change existing production systems in the near future. The quality of the machining process with robots is mainly governed by the accuracy and stiffness of the robots. Therefore, a precision reducer for the robot joint is an important component that governs the accuracy of machining robots. This paper presents a review of rigid precision reducers for machining robots. Initially, an overview of the machining robots and their features is introduced. The importance of a precision reducer as a component of a robot for machining is explored. A cycloid reducer is the best candidate among precision reducers, considering both the structural compliance and kinematic accuracy of the machining robots. This is followed by reviews of various cycloid reducers and their operating principles. The design issues of the cycloid reducer for performance improvement are then presented. Additionally, the methodology and analysis to assess the performance of the cycloid reducers are discussed. The machining and fault detection of a cycloid reducer are briefly addressed. Finally, other applications of cycloid reducers are introduced.