A long-reach robotic arm is useful for applications such as nuclear plant decommissioning, inspection, and firefighting. However, for such arms, a small external reaction force can result in large loads on proximal arm actuators because of long moment arms. This problem was previously solved by specialized arm designs that compensate external reaction forces. However, these arm designs are hard to be applied to other arms or customized to different missions. To overcome these difficulties, in this paper, we propose a modular thrust generating concept inspired by wristwatch designs, called flying watch, which can be attached to a robotic arm with mission-dependent attachment styles (attachment positions and orientations) and cooperate with actuators to enhance arm strength. We first introduce flying watch concept, design, and dynamics. Then we propose two levels of watch-actuator cooperation in quasistatic situations by introducing a problem called Watch Actuator Cooperation for Arm Enhancement (WACAE) and providing an example solution. The first level of cooperation is only watches adapt their thrusts to minimize actuator loads, which is generally applicable to varieties of arms. The second level cooperation is that not only do the watches adapt their thrusts but also the actuators cooperatively position the watches to optimal positions and orientations to counteract external reaction forces, which is suitable for redundant arms and can counteract external reaction forces more effectively. Finally, we present simulations to verify that flying watches can significantly reduce actuator loads using both levels of watch-actuator cooperation (the first level by 36.9% and the second level by 43.7%).

中文翻译：

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飞行手表：用于长距离机械臂的可附加强度增强装置

长距离机械臂可用于核电厂退役，检查和消防等应用。但是，对于此类臂，由于臂的力矩较长，较小的外部反作用力可能会在近侧臂致动器上产生较大的负载。该问题以前通过补偿外部反作用力的专用臂设计解决。但是，这些武器设计很难应用于其他武器或难以针对不同任务进行定制。为了克服这些困难，在本文中，我们提出了一种受制于手表设计的模块化推力产生概念，即飞行手表，该手表可以根据任务的连接方式（连接位置和方向）连接到机械臂，并与执行器配合使用。增强手臂力量。我们首先介绍飞行手表的概念，设计和动力。然后，我们通过引入称为“用于手臂增强的手表执行器合作”（WACAE）的问题并提供示例解决方案，在准静态情况下提出两个级别的手表执行器合作。合作的第一层次是仅手表调整其推力以最大程度地减少执行器负载，这通常适用于各种机械臂。第二级合作是，手表不仅可以调整其推力，而且致动器还可以将手表共同定位到最佳位置和方向，以抵消外部反作用力，这适用于多余的手臂，可以更有效地抵消外部反作用力。最后，我们提出了模拟来验证飞行手表可以同时使用两个级别的手表-执行器配合（第一级为36个）来显着降低执行器负载。