The Robotics Laboratory operates under the direction of Professor Leila Notash. The objective and current research interest is the investigation and development of high performance manipulators allowing effective and failure safe implementation of the devices. Practical and effective analysis and solution methods for the performance improvement of novel robotic systems are being developed.
The main focus of the Robotics Lab is on the design, kinematics, force and stiffness analysis of parallel manipulators. Due to the higher stiffness and accuracy of parallel devices, they have numerous applications such as flight simulators, position devices and machining tools. With the increased application of parallel manipulators, the need for optimum, robust, low mass, and low cost manipulators with relatively large workspace increases. Parallel manipulators, particularly wire/cable-actuated parallel manipulators, through appropriate design and control, could be excellent candidates to fulfill these requirements. Areas being researched include manipulator fault tolerance and failure recovery, calibration, kinematic and wrench closure workspace, compliance, distribution of joints and actuators, modularity, mechanism design, architectures, redundancy and control for different applications. Additionally, an on-line library of the existing parallel devices is being developed.
The financial support for the projects of Robotics Lab has been provided by Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), Schlumberger Foundation, Materials and Manufacturing Ontario (MMO), MD Robotics Ltd., DIPIX Technologies Inc., PRECARN Incorporated, Queen's University