So, you want to build an H-bot?

The H-bot is conceptually simple, but the design of the controls makes it amazing.

Kevin C Craig, PhD -- EDN, May 26, 2011

The H-bot, so-named because it resembles the letter H, is an example of such a robot. This 2-D robot, a planar mechanism for positioning an object in XY space, such as a plane, finds use in many industrial applications, such as pick-and-place, sorting, gluing, and inspection systems. It is easy to manufacture because it comprises two motors, a timing belt, and two perpendicularly mounted rails (Figure 1). Despite its dynamic simplicity, friction, backlash, and compliance throughout the mechanism are impediments to accurate positioning and represent system-design challenges.


Motion applications typically use a cascade-control system that comprises position, velocity, and current loops, all typically proportional integral. Additional features, such as velocity feedforward to reduce position-following error and acceleration feedforward to reduce velocity-following error, are also usually part of the control architecture.

Many mechatronics engineers lack a thorough understanding of the position-command computation. Its complexity depends on the shape of the path the robot must follow. Paths with sharp corners, such as a square, are challenging to accurately reproduce with a machine. The challenge resides in accurately following sharp corners. Poor implementation of the calculation of the position command causes an overshoot on the corner, yielding imperfections in the product.

One approach to mitigating this effect produces perfect corners for a square shape with an H-bot. In this approach, each side of the square becomes a segment on the motion profile, which is defined by the geometry of a square projected on X and Y axes. Thus, you obtain the profile X and Y axes in the Cartesian space. You then employ the inverse kinematics of the robot to obtain the position profile at the motor shafts. Use a master axis to obtain synchronization between axes. The motion profile of this master axis plays a key role in creating perfect corners. Four segments that start and end at each corner of the square shape define this profile. To reduce machine vibration, wear, and noise, use a smooth profile, such as a fifth-order polynomial profile, to define the motion of the master axis from corner to corner.

You can find details on the design and construction of an H-bot, including modeling, analysis, control design, and experimental validation, at www.multimechatronics.com.

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