What Is Axis & Axes Movements

    

What Is Axes? If we look at the meaning of the "axis" from the dictionary we can find the meaning of "an imaginary line through the center of an object, around which the object turns". In the other hand, in robotic terminology we can explain the the axis; "A direction used to specify the robot motion in a lienar or rotary mode(ISO 8373)".

    An axis in robotic represents basically the "degree of freedom"(DOF). In the industry there are many kind of industrial robots that have different axes configurations (degree of freedom) in the ranges through two axes to fifteen axes robots. It depends on the type of the application. 

Fig: Cartesian Robots: Two Or Three Sliding Axes

Fig: SDA Series 15 Axes Robot[For Detail]

    For example; we have six axes robot, it means that this robot can move in six different ways could be moved. This means a robot can move in X, y and z planes as well as position itself using roll, pitch and yaw movements. To addition that robot axes define the movement capabilities. Simply we can say "more axes mean more complex movements. You can resemble robotic arms and human arm in the degree of freedom as you can see blow figure.

Fig: Degree Of Freedom

    Number of axes and the axes ranges is one of the important part when selection a robot for robotic cell/application and the task. You can find the axes ranges, payload and speed of each axes(specification) of a robots' manufacturer document. I want to give an example of Yaskawa Motoman GP 180 Robots below:

Fig: Yaskawa Robot Axes

Fig: Axes Ranges

Fig: Axes Velocities

A Video For Axes Movements

     Most of the industrial robots of different kind of brands[you could see the members of IFR(International Federation of Robotics)] have the ability movement of six axes. It could be shown the differences for different kind of robot brands. I have prepared a small simulation to show the movements of each six axes Yaskawa Motoman robots in the Motosim. This video shows all each axis individually how they move and how changed of its pulse values. I drop the video link below. You can find the video link from here. In besides that I would to show the axes movements of ABB Robotics to give just an example for showing the differences(If I take a feedback, I can prepare a video about ABB Robots Axes Movement Simulation Video).

Fig: ABB Robot Axes Values

Video: Yaskawa Motoman Axes Movements

Thanks For Reading...

Okan Okumuş

14.06.2020