The SCARA is a type of

industrial robot An industrial robot is a robot system used for manufacturing. Industrial robots are automated, programmable and capable of movement on three or more axes. Typical applications of robots include welding, painting, assembly, disassembly, pick a ...

. The acronym stands for Selective Compliance Assembly Robot Arm or Selective Compliance Articulated Robot Arm. By virtue of the SCARA's parallel-axis joint layout, the arm is slightly compliant in the X-Y direction but rigid in the Z direction, hence the term ''selective compliance''. This is advantageous for many types of assembly operations, for example, inserting a round pin in a round hole without binding. The second attribute of the SCARA is the jointed two-link arm layout similar to human arms, hence the often-used term, ''articulated''. This feature allows the arm to extend into confined areas and then retract or "fold up" out of the way. This is advantageous for transferring parts from one cell to another or for loading or unloading process stations that are enclosed. SCARAs are generally faster than comparable

Cartesian robot A Cartesian coordinate robot (also called linear robot) is an industrial robot whose three principal axes of control are linear (i.e. they move in a straight line rather than rotate) and are at right angles to each other. The three sliding jo ...

systems. Their single pedestal mount requires a small footprint and provides an easy, unhindered form of mounting. On the other hand, SCARAs can be more expensive than comparable Cartesian systems and the controlling software requires

inverse kinematics In computer animation and robotics, inverse kinematics is the mathematical process of calculating the variable joint parameters needed to place the end of a kinematic chain, such as a robot manipulator or animation character's skeleton, in a g ...

for linear interpolated moves. However, this software typically comes with the SCARA and is usually transparent to the end-user. Sankyo Seiki,

Pentel is a privately-held Japanese manufacturing company of stationery products. The name is a combination of the English words ''pen'' and ''tell'' (as in, telling a story). Pentel is also the inventor of non-permanent marker technology. Most Pente ...

and

NEC is a Japanese multinational information technology and electronics corporation, headquartered in Minato, Tokyo. The company was known as the Nippon Electric Company, Limited, before rebranding in 1983 as NEC. It provides IT and network soluti ...

presented the SCARA robot as a completely new concept for assembly robots in 1981. The robot was developed under the guidance of Hiroshi Makino, a professor at the

University of Yamanashi The , abbreviated to , is a university that has campuses in Kofu and Chūō, Japan. The University of Yamanashi has its origin in “Kitenkan” which was founded in 1795 as a branch school of “Shoheizaka-School” of Tokugawa Government (late ...

. Its arm was rigid in the Z-axis and pliable in the XY-axes, which allowed it to adapt to holes in the XY-axes.

Animations

Source: File:SCARA right.gif, Direct kinematics of a SCARA robot File:5R robot inv kinematics.gif, Inverse kinematics of a 5R parallel robot File:5R robot.gif, Direct kinematics of a 5R parallel robot

References

External links

Why SCARA? A Case Study
– A Comparison between 3-axis r-theta robot vs. 4-axis SCARA robot by Innovative Robotics, a division of Ocean Bay and Lake Company {{Robotics - Robotic manipulators 1981 in robotics

Animations

See also

References

External links