Krzysztof Borkowski

This paper presents the design, implementation, and experimental results of a six-degree-of-freedom Delta-type parallel manipulator, in which all actuators were realized using proprietary pneumatic muscles. The objective of the study was to evaluate the suitability of this type of actuator for applications in parallel robotics, with particular attention to their dynamic properties, nonlinearities, and potential limitations. In the first part of the article, the details of the manipulator’s construction and the kinematic model, covering both the forward and inverse kinematics, are presented. The control system was based on antagonistic pairs of pneumatic muscles forming servo drives responsible for the motion of individual arms. The experimental investigations were focused on analyzing trajectory-tracking accuracy and positioning repeatability, both in unloaded conditions and under additional payload applied to the end-effector. The results indicate that positioning errors for simple trajectories were generally below 1 mm, whereas for complex trajectories and under load, they increased, particularly during changes in motion direction, which can be attributed to friction and hysteresis phenomena in the muscles. Repeatability tests confirmed the ability of the manipulator to repeatedly reach the desired positions with small deviations. The analysis carried out confirms that pneumatic muscles can be effectively applied to drive parallel manipulators, offering advantageous features such as high power density and low mass. At the same time, the need for further research on nonlinearity compensation and durability enhancement was demonstrated.

This paper describes methods of determining important measurement parameters of large bent pipes with diameters of up to 1.2 m for heavy industry, which can be obtained instantly from a vision system. The article presents, in detail, modeling methods of the bending angle, radius, and straight sections of the bent pipe. The system is able to detect the start and end of such sections, which is novel in automatic pipe measurement. The article also demonstrates the use of a modified Hough transform in line and curve fitting and the necessary image preprocessing. The complete system operates on distortion models and image projection dedicated for pipe models with images taken from a single camera.

In this paper, the authors discuss the method of deformations compensation (resulting from the impact of variable temperatures and pressure) in pipelines intended for fluids transport (liquids and gases). Classical methods of compensation thro...

This article presents a system for the autonomous operation of a manipulator of a mobile robot. The aim of the research was to develop a system for a robot to operate a panel with switches. The manipulator should position itself autonomously and perform a given action. The operation of the system is based solely on one digital camera. The vision system uses markers to identify the position of the end-effector. The test results show that the system operates well in good artificial and natural lighting conditions. The system can be used effectively for activities that do not require high accuracy, e.g., pressing buttons and switches or grasping objects. However, for high-precision tasks, such as inserting a plug into a socket, or tasks that require high positioning accuracy, the manipulator may not be suitable.

The shaping process of surface texture is complicated and depends on many factors and phenomena accompanying them. This article presents the author’s test stand for the measurement of relative displacements in a tool–workpiece system during longitudinal turning. The aim of this study was to determine the influence of edge radius on the relative displacement between the tool and workpiece. The cutting process was carried out with inserts with different edge radii for X37CrMoV5-1 steel. As a result of the research, vibration charts of the tool–workpiece system were obtained. In the range of feed 0.03–0.18 mm/rev, the values of the standard deviation of relative displacements in the x-axis were obtained in the range of 0.36–0.78 μm for the insert with an edge radius of r_n = 48.8 μm. As a result of the work, it was determined that for the feed value of 0.12 mm/rev for all inserts, the relative displacements are the smallest. As the final effect, the formula for forecasting the Ra roughness parameter was presented.

This article presents a numerical analysis of laser-welded flange pipe joints. The presented results concern the welding of low carbon S235JR and stainless 316L steels using a CO2 laser in lap and fillet joint configurations. The estimation of welding parameters was achieved using Simufact Welding software and numerical simulation, where output power, feed rate, efficiency and intensity distribution (Gaussian parameter) were analysed. In accordance with the established model, a thermo-mechanical simulation was performed. The calculated joint geometries show good agreement with experiments; therefore, the obtained results were used to study selected joint properties of both joint types. Stress-strain distribution was estimated on the basis of thermomechanical analysis. Weld bead geometry obtained from numerical simulation was compared with the results from trial joints. The numerical model established for both joint configurations shows good agreement with experimental results and were assumed to be accurate. The results of the performed analysis shown some advantages of the use of this configuration of lap joints in flange pipe joints.