Page - 227 - in Proceedings - OAGM & ARW Joint Workshop 2016 on "Computer Vision and Robotics“

an integrative system engineering approach in theory (robot design and dimensioning) and practical application (robotprogramming, control and optimization). Supportingfactorstoenableroboticslearningexperiencesaccordingtotheaforementionedcriteriaare the ongoing price decline of progressively powerful sensors, motors and micro-controllers together with increasingly widespread additivemanufacturing abilities in order to create adequate mechanical parts and actuator components. 3D-printing of synthetic materials has not only become financially affordable. Moreover, meanwhile even basic knowledge of production techniques like e.g., fused de- positionmodeling (FDM)allowsfora rapiddesign, constructionandfabricationofcustomized robot components with low mass (for further details of filament fabrication refer to e.g., [Allen,2015]). There is, however, one possible disadvantage to be taken account, when using 3D-printed compo- nents: due to expectable inexactness of the printed parts, each robot prototype might have slightly differing attributes. As educational application will scarcely have the need of producing high quanti- tiesof identicalmachines, this canyetbeconsideredasaminorconstraint. Altogether thementioneddevelopmentshaveenabled thecurrentproject. Concretely,asix-axis robot was designed using CAD software that can handle payloads of up to 500g mass within a working envelopeof700mm indiameter. Thebeltdriven jointsweredesignedtohideallcontaineddrivebelts inside the robot in order to ensure safety and to achieve an aesthetically pleasing design. The goals ofoperator-friendlinessandmaintainabilitywereobtainedbyassemblingall components inenclosed modular sub-assemblies inorder tobeable tochangeeachmoduleeasilyor toadapt justonespecific part of the robot. In contrast to commercial industrial robots, there is no need to strictly separate the working range of the robot from human reaching areas by means of a closed assembly cell. Figure 1 illustrates thenamingconventions and the structureof the robot. Figure1.Namingconventionandstructureof therobot 227