An indus­tri­al robot is com­prised of a robot manip­u­la­tor, pow­er sup­ply, and con­trollers. Robot­ic manip­u­la­tors can be divid­ed into two sec­tions, each with a dif­fer­ent function: 

Robot Arm and Body

The arm and body of a robot are used to move and posi­tion parts or tools with­in a work enve­lope. They are formed from three joints con­nect­ed by large links.

Robot Wrist

The wrist is used to ori­ent the parts or tools at the work loca­tion. It con­sists of two or three com­pact joints.

Robot manip­u­la­tors are cre­at­ed from a sequence of link and joint com­bi­na­tions. The links are the rigid mem­bers con­nect­ing the joints, or axes. The axes are the mov­able com­po­nents of the robot­ic manip­u­la­tor that cause rel­a­tive motion between adjoin­ing links. The mechan­i­cal joints used to con­struct the robot­ic arm manip­u­la­tor con­sist of five prin­ci­pal types. Two of the joints are lin­ear, in which the rel­a­tive motion between adja­cent links is non-rota­tion­al, and three are rotary types, in which the rel­a­tive motion involves rota­tion between links.

The arm-and-body sec­tion of robot­ic manip­u­la­tors is based on one of four con­fig­u­ra­tions. Each of these anatomies pro­vides a dif­fer­ent work enve­lope and is suit­ed for dif­fer­ent appli­ca­tions.

Gantry Robots

These robots have lin­ear joints and are mount­ed over­head. They are also called Carte­sian and rec­ti­lin­ear robots. 

Cylin­dri­cal Robots

Named for the shape of its work enve­lope, cylin­dri­cal anato­my robots are fash­ioned from lin­ear joints that con­nect to a rotary base joint. 

Polar Robots

The base joint of a polar robot allows for twist­ing and the joints are a com­bi­na­tion of rotary and lin­ear types. The work space cre­at­ed by this con­fig­u­ra­tion is spherical. 

Joint­ed-Arm Robots

This is the most pop­u­lar indus­tri­al robot­ic con­fig­u­ra­tion. The arm con­nects with a twist­ing joint, and the links with­in it are con­nect­ed with rotary joints. It is also called an artic­u­lat­ed robot. 

Robots​.com pro­vides Inte­gra­tion-Ready Fanuc, Motoman, ABB, and Kuka indus­tri­al robots. To learn more about robot arm manip­u­la­tors or how to pur­chase an indus­tri­al robot, check out our prod­uct list­ings or con­tact us at 877−762−6881.