Passive compliance of flexible link robots. II. Analysis and application

Compliance of a robot is an important factor which often determines its application. This paper reviews the importance of passive compliance and shows the expression of passive compliance in terms of the compliance/stiffness matrix at the manipulator's end-effector. Properties of compliance/stiffness matrices are discussed. The end-effector compliances from the compliance offered by the limbs are explored as functions of joint configurations. Some computational results for the end-effector compliance of the SCARA- and PUMA-type robots are presented. An application example is provided to show the usefulness of passive compliance in automation.