Challenges faced by six-axis robots can be grouped into three areas: sensors, technical issues, and kinematics. These factors directly affect stability and operating accuracy.
1. Sensor-Related Issues
Hardware problems: aging of internal sensor components, short circuits or open circuits causing loss of sensing, damaged cables or poor contacts leading to abnormal signals.
Environmental interference: electromagnetic interference causing signal confusion, and high temperature or humidity accelerating component aging.
Configuration deviation: loss of calibration parameters or incorrect software settings causing measurement distortion, and mechanical wear or mounting displacement causing errors in data acquisition.
2. Technical Issues
Trajectory abnormalities: vibration at the end of axes J4–J6 is often caused by harmonic reducer backlash or excessively high control gain; collisions involving axes J1–J3 result from link volumes not being included in path planning.
Performance degradation: increased positioning errors in axes J2/J3 are caused by gear wear or thermal deformation; loss of speed control at the ±90° position of axis J5 stems from Jacobian matrix rank deficiency. For worn gears or deformed structural parts that cause such positioning errors, Hansheng Automation can provide custom machining services based on customer drawings, helping restore the required accuracy.
Load and communication: sagging of the lower arm at axis J2 indicates torque overload or insufficient rigidity; communication delays with the end tool and excessively long bus cycles lead to poor axis synchronization.
3. Kinematic Aspects
Structural limitations: collinearity between the sixth and fourth axes creates singular configurations, preventing the end effector from moving in certain directions; actual joint motion range is smaller than the theoretical value.
Obstacle avoidance limitations: in industrial environments, traditional six-axis structures find it difficult to adjust end-effector orientation independently of position, increasing the difficulty of path planning in complex spaces.
