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Since robot’s structural stiffness is usually less than 1 N/µm, mode coupling chatter occurs frequently during robotic milling process, and chatter frequency is close to the natural frequency of the robot itself. Chatter not only affects the surface quality but also damages the robot and reduces the positioning accuracy. Therefore, it is necessary to predict chatter in robotic machining process.

A three-dimensional dynamic model for robot’s spatial milling plane is established, and a corresponding stability criterion is obtained. First, the cutting force in milling plane is transformed into the coordinate system of the robot principal stiffness direction based on homogeneous transformation matrix. Then the three-dimensional stability criterion under milling process can be obtained by using system stability analysis. Furthermore, the circle diagram of mode coupling chatter stability is drawn. Each feeding direction’s stability under the two processing forms, referred as spindle vertical milling and spindle horizontal milling, is analyzed.

The experimental results verify that the three-dimensional stability criterion can avoid chatter by selecting machining feed direction in stable area.

This paper established a three-dimensional dynamic model in robot’s spatial milling plane and proposed a three-dimensional stability criterion according to the Routh criterion. The work is also expected to be an efficient tool in the development of robotic milling technology.

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate new design concepts for 24 classes of laminate, which have been derived as part of an ongoing study on the development of a unified approach to the characterization of coupled laminates. The paper presents a description of each class of coupled laminate.

The paper gives an overview of the desired performance and requirements of a smart leading edge device, its aerodynamic design for the wind tunnel tests and the structural pre‐design and sizing of the full‐scale leading edge section which will be tested in the wind tunnel.

Coupled laminates have potential applications in the design of aero‐elastic compliant rotor blades or aircraft wing structures, by introducing tailored extension‐twist and/or shear‐extension coupling at the laminate level; or in the design of thermally activated morphing structures, by exploiting more complex coupling behaviour.

These laminates contain standard cross‐ply and/or angle‐ply combinations, although double angle‐ply laminates are also considered, and correspond to any standard fibre/matrix system with a constant ply thickness throughout.

The vast majority of the laminate described possess coupling behaviour not previously identified in the literature.

Compared with the high stiffness of traditional CNC machine tools, the structural stiffness of industrial robots is usually less than 1 N/µm. Chatter not only affects the quality of robotic milling but also reduces the accuracy of the milling process. The purpose of this paper is to reduce chatter in the robotic machining process.

First, the mode coupling chatter mechanism is analyzed. Then the milling force model and the principal stiffness model are established. Finally, the robot milling stability optimization method is proposed. The method considered functional redundancies, and a new robot milling stability index is proposed to improve the quality of milling operations.

The experimental results prove a significant reduction in force fluctuations and surface roughness after using the proposed robotic milling stability optimization method.

In this paper, a new robot milling stability index and a new robot milling stability optimization method are proposed. This method can significantly increase the milling stability and improve the milling quality, which can be widely used in the industry.

Industrial robots have found great potential in applications to assembly‐line automation. Programmable robot‐based assembly systems are often needed, in particular for circumstances in which special assembly equipments is not available or well‐trained operators could not be employed economically. Robots with enough compliance can perform not only classic automation tasks, such as spot welding, cargo carrying, etc., but also can operate those tasks which demand the compliant motion capacity of robots. Therefore, the research on robot compliance is especially important for parts assembly by robots, where robot compliant motions and manipulations are essential requirements. This paper presents a number of important issues in robot compliance research, including the specification of robot end‐effector compliance; properties of a robot compliance matrix at its end‐effector; discussions on passive compliance and active compliance and their comparisons; and derivation of the compliance at the end‐effector required for tasks.

A nonlinear finite element (FE) beam-column model for the analysis of reinforced concrete (RC) frames with due account of shear is presented in this paper. The model is an expansion of the traditional flexural fibre beam formulations to cases where multiaxial behaviour exists, being an alternative to plane and solid FE models for the nonlinear analysis of entire frame structures. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Shear is taken into account at different levels of the numerical model: at the material level RC is simulated through a smeared cracked approach with rotating cracks; at the fibre level, an iterative procedure guarantees equilibrium between concrete and transversal reinforcement, allowing to compute the biaxial stress-strain state of each fibre; at the section level, a uniform shear stress pattern is assumed in order to estimate the internal shear stress-strain distribution; and at the element level, the Timoshenko beam theory takes into account an average rotation due to shear.

The proposed model is validated through experimental tests available in the literature, as well as through an experimental campaign carried out by the authors. The results on the response of RC elements critical to shear include displacements, strains and crack patterns and show the capabilities of the model to efficiently deal with shear effects in beam elements.

A formulation for the nonlinear shear-bending interaction based on the fixed stress approach is implemented in a fibre beam model. Shear effects are accurately accounted during all the nonlinear path of the structure in a computationally efficient manner.

THE increase in speeds of modern aircraft types has brought with it many stiffness criteria for the prevention of flutter, entailing an accurate estimate of the stiffness and rigidity of structural parts, and if the skinning of such plywood stressed skin units as fuselages, wings, and control surfaces is to be of reasonable weight, and the relevant Air Ministry requirements are to be simultaneously satisfied, it becomes essential that more rigid methods of stiffness estimations of plywood panels should be employed than has been done hitherto. The difficulties in getting theory and practice to agree are many and may be enumerated as follows:

IN Parts I, II and III of this series we have discussed the physical nature of divergence, control reversal and various forms of flutter, and have seen how these phenomena can be predicted by theory. The flutter problem is so complicated, however, that the aircraft designer needs the assistance of certain guiding principles; otherwise he may find when the aircraft is ready to fly that the flutter calculations which are just completed show that drastic modifications to the aircraft are necessary. These principles form the basis of this concluding part of the series and have two main objects: first to avoid large changes in design on flutter grounds and secondly to obtain a high efficiency from the flutter calculations.

This paper aims to present ball bearings with a composite structure based on the bionics principle and shows the comparison between five types of different structures.

By means of the finite element method, the stress and other parameters between different structures are compared and verified. Finally, the comprehensive parameters of different structures are evaluated by the analytic hierarchy process method.

The evaluation of the comprehensive parameters of five types of structures is shown here.

The value of this paper is calculated and compared to the parameters of five types of different structures, and the parameter score evaluation of each structure is given. Different structures can be selected according to different parameter requirements, which to provide a theoretical basis for the design of ball bearings.

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon10.1108/ILT-10-2019-0413

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the buckling strength of simply supported plates with mechanical extension-twisting coupling. Bounds of the compression buckling strength are presented for a special sub-class of extension-twisting coupled laminate that is free from the thermal distortions that generally arise in this class of coupled laminate as a result of the high temperature curing process. These special laminates are generally referred to as hygro-thermally curvature-stable (HTCS).

This paper gives an overview of the methodology for developing laminates with extension-twisting coupling properties, which are derived from a parent laminate with HTCS properties. A closed form buckling solution is applicable for this special class of coupled laminate, which facilitates an assessment of compression buckling strength performance for the entire laminate design space.

Extension-twisting coupled laminates have potential applications in the design of aero-elastic compliant rotor blades, where the speed of the rotating blade, and the resulting centrifugal force, can be used to control blade twist. Extension-twisting coupling reduces the compression buckling performance of the blade, which represents an important static design constraint. However, the performance has been shown to be higher than competing designs with extension-shearing coupling in many cases.

Bounds of the buckling curves have been presented for the entire HTCS laminate design space, possessing extension-twisting and shearing-bending coupling, in which the laminates contain standard ply angle orientations and up to 21 plies. These laminates can be manufactured without the undesirable thermal warping distortions that generally affect this class of coupled laminate, and in particular, those containing angle plies only; previously thought to be the only form of laminate design from which this particular type of mechanical coupling can be derived.

An elasto‐viscoplastic analysis of anisotropic plates and shells is undertaken by means of the finite element displacement method. A thick shell formulation accounting for shear deformation is considered and a layered approach is adopted in order to model property changes through the shell thickness. In order to avoid ‘locking’ behaviour as the shell thickness is reduced, the nine‐node Lagrangian and heterosis elements are introduced into the present model. Viscoplastic yielding is based on the Huber—Mises criterion extended by Hill for anisotropic materials. Time integration of the strain rate equations is accomplished by both explicit and implicit algorithms and special consideration is given to the evaluation of the viscoplastic strain increment for anisotropic situations. The computer code developed is demonstrated by application to a range of numerical examples.