end effector
In plain wordsThe tool at the end of a robot arm that actually touches the world, such as a gripper, suction cup, welding torch, paint sprayer or robotic hand.
The tool or hand mounted on the last link of a robot manipulator, the part that actually touches and acts on the world: a parallel-jaw or multi-fingered gripper, a vacuum suction cup, a magnetic or soft gripper, or a process tool such as a welding torch, spray gun, screwdriver or surgical instrument. In kinematics, the end effector's pose — its position and orientation, usually expressed as a coordinate frame at the tool center point — is what forward kinematicsforward kinematics, n.: The math that works out where a robot's hand or tool ends up, given the angles of all its joints, by chaining together the movement each joint adds. computes from joint angles and what inverse kinematicsinverse kinematics, n.: Working backward from where you want a robot's hand to be to the joint angles that will put it there, like working out how to bend your arm to touch your nose. and Cartesian controllers command. Industrial cells often use automatic tool changers so one arm can switch end effectors between tasks. The choice of end effector largely determines what a robot can do, and much recent progress in graspinggrasping, n.: How a robot picks up and holds an object securely with a gripper or hand: deciding where to put its fingers or suction cup and how hard to squeeze. and dexterous manipulationdexterous manipulation, n.: Skilled handling of objects with robot fingers, such as spinning a pen, turning a key or rotating a cube in one hand: the fine finger work people do without thinking. comes from cheaper, better grippers and hands with built-in tactile sensingtactile sensing, n.: Giving robots a sense of touch, with sensors in fingertips or skin that feel pressure, texture, vibration and slipping, so they can handle objects gently and securely.. In vision-language-action modelsvision-language-action model, n.: An AI model that looks through a robot's cameras, reads an instruction such as 'put the cup in the sink', and turns both straight into the robot's movements., actions are often expressed as end-effector displacements, which eases transfer between arms of different designs.
Swap the end effector to the vacuum cup before the cardboard batch.
Origin
Standard in robotics and teleoperation literature by at least the 1970s; 'end-of-arm tooling' is the corresponding term in industrial automation.
Related
- manipulationmanipulation, n.: A robot's use of arms, hands or grippers to change the world around it: picking things up, moving, pushing, opening, assembling or using tools.
- graspinggrasping, n.: How a robot picks up and holds an object securely with a gripper or hand: deciding where to put its fingers or suction cup and how hard to squeeze.
- forward kinematicsforward kinematics, n.: The math that works out where a robot's hand or tool ends up, given the angles of all its joints, by chaining together the movement each joint adds.
- inverse kinematicsinverse kinematics, n.: Working backward from where you want a robot's hand to be to the joint angles that will put it there, like working out how to bend your arm to touch your nose.
- actuatoractuator, n.: The 'muscle' of a machine: a motor or similar device that turns electrical, hydraulic or air power into movement, such as turning a robot's joint or closing its gripper.
- degrees of freedomdegrees of freedom, n.: The number of independent ways something can move. A robot arm with six motorized joints has six; a free-floating object can slide three ways and turn three ways.
- tactile sensingtactile sensing, n.: Giving robots a sense of touch, with sensors in fingertips or skin that feel pressure, texture, vibration and slipping, so they can handle objects gently and securely.
Sources
- Lynch, K. M. & Park, F. C. (2017). Modern Robotics: Mechanics, Planning, and Control. Cambridge University Press.
Mentioned in
actuatoractuator, n.: The 'muscle' of a machine: a motor or similar device that turns electrical, hydraulic or air power into movement, such as turning a robot's joint or closing its gripper., collaborative robotcollaborative robot, n.: A robot designed to work safely right next to people without a safety cage, for example by moving gently and stopping at once if it bumps into someone., degrees of freedomdegrees of freedom, n.: The number of independent ways something can move. A robot arm with six motorized joints has six; a free-floating object can slide three ways and turn three ways., graspinggrasping, n.: How a robot picks up and holds an object securely with a gripper or hand: deciding where to put its fingers or suction cup and how hard to squeeze., industrial robotindustrial robot, n.: A programmable robot arm used in factories for jobs such as welding, painting, assembling and moving parts, traditionally working inside a safety cage., inverse kinematicsinverse kinematics, n.: Working backward from where you want a robot's hand to be to the joint angles that will put it there, like working out how to bend your arm to touch your nose., manipulationmanipulation, n.: A robot's use of arms, hands or grippers to change the world around it: picking things up, moving, pushing, opening, assembling or using tools., dexterous manipulationdexterous manipulation, n.: Skilled handling of objects with robot fingers, such as spinning a pen, turning a key or rotating a cube in one hand: the fine finger work people do without thinking., forward kinematicsforward kinematics, n.: The math that works out where a robot's hand or tool ends up, given the angles of all its joints, by chaining together the movement each joint adds., impedance controlimpedance control, n.: A way of controlling a robot so that it behaves like a spring and shock absorber when it touches things, giving way gently instead of pushing rigidly., tactile sensingtactile sensing, n.: Giving robots a sense of touch, with sensors in fingertips or skin that feel pressure, texture, vibration and slipping, so they can handle objects gently and securely.