The SCARA, which stands for Selective Compliance Assembly Robot Arm, has 4-axis design, it means that robot has parallel-axis joint layout, where the arm is slightly compliant in the X-Y direction but rigid in the Z direction (Bickendorf, 2015). For this reason we call it ‘Selective Compliant…’.
In more depth, one can observe that robot has:
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3 rotational axes
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1 translational axis
Also, it is necessary to mention that the number of axes has to be at least >= than the required number of degrees of freedom for the desired movement.
The basic applications of SCARA Robots are:
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high-speed assembly
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kitting
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packaging
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other material-handling
The video illustrates basic application of SCARA robots. See below.
VIDEO LINK: Sausage packaging application
In the end, I would like to share a video, where SCARA Robot is playing Chinese Checkers with rate of ball moving 4 balls per second. :)