Kinematics and Trajectory Planning of the Masonry Robot

Abstract This paper proposes a mechanical system for a masonry robot comprising four parts: an omnidirectional mobile platform, a lifting platform, a six-degrees-of-freedom manipulator, and a grasping mechanism. The robot is specifically designed to carry out brick masonry on construction sites and is equipped to move bricks smoothly with slurry to their intended location. To prevent mortar from being shaken off the brick, the grasping mechanism is required to maintain optimal velocity and optimized acceleration. To implement online trajectory planning with velocity and acceleration constraints, the paper suggests an approach based on screw theory for resolving the inverse kinematics of the masonry robot. This method allows the inverse kinematic equations to be used to determine a unique solution for all joints of the redundant driver of the masonry robot. The approach and strategy are validated through numerical simulations of trajectory planning using a fifth-degree polynomial.