Kinematics Modelling and Co-simulation Research of a Novel Electrical Optical Cable Pruning Robot Using V-REP and MATLAB

In this paper, a new type of serial pruning robot with five degree of freedom is developed to solve the issues of power cable inspection and maintenance. First, the kinematic model of the manipulator is established by Denavit-Hartenbreg (D-H) method, and its kinematic forward and inverse solution is obtained. Then, the kinematic co-simulation is executed by MATLAB and V-REP, the Monte Carlo method is used to analyze the working space of the pruning robot, and the workspace of the manipulator is obtained; To ensure the pruning process runs smoothly, trajectory planning simulation in the workspace is taken; Finally, the co-simulation results show that the kinematic model is valid, each joint and end effector control effect is good, and the pruning robot can achieve flexibly pruning branches and other obstacles in the range of 1 to 1.5 meters, which provides theoretical and experimental basis for follow-up research of pruning robot control problem. (paper)