UNIVERSITI TEKNIKAL MALAYSIA MELAKA

(UTeM)






PC BASED ROBOTIC ARM

Thesis submitted in accordance with the partial requirements of the
Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka for the
Bachelor of Manufacturing Engineering (Robotics and Automation) with Honours



By





MOHD FARID BIN MIZAN


Faculty of Manufacturing Engineering

May 2008






ABSTRACT







Robotic arm has been widely use in manufacturing industry as part of automation system.
Typical applications of robots in industry include welding, painting, assembly pick and
place, packaging and palletizing, product inspection, and testing. PC based robotic arm
has the same mechanism as the robots in industry. The pc based robotic arm is fully
controlled by a computer, where the user has to control the movement of robot using the
serial servo controller software. The serial servo controller circuit is serially connected to
the pc, thus provide communication between the pc and the circuit. The signal from the
computer will be received by the PIC at the circuit. The justified signal will then be use to
execute the output to the servo motor, thus provide the necessary movement of the
robotic arm. This project is to fabricate the robotic arm that can be directly controlled by
computer. The special attributes of the project is the robotic arm is pc based. Its mean that
the robot is fully controlled by the computer, makes it different than typical automatic
and manual control robot. The project is very useful in gaining new experience and
knowledge on robot arm fabrication and programming.






ABSTRAK







Robot lengan telah digunakan secara meluas di dalam sektor industri dan pembuatan
sebagai sebahagian daripada sistem automasi. Di dalam industri, robot lengan sering
diaplikasikan dalam proses kimpalan, semburan cat, pemasangan, pengangkutan dan
pemindahan barang, kawalan produk, dan sebagainya. Robot lengan berasaskan komputer
ini mempunyai ciri ciri dan mekanisma yang sama dengan robot robot lengan yang
digunakan di dalam industri. Robot jenis ini dikawal sepenuhnya, pergerakkannya dengan
menggunakan komputer. Pengguna mengawal pergerakan robot melalui pemuka yang
telah dibangunkan khas di komputer. Litar pengawal motor servo bersiri disambungkan
secara bersiri ke komputer, seterusnya memberi laluan komunikasi di antara komputer
dan litar. Signal dari komputer diterima oleh PIC yang dipasang di litar. Signal yang telah
diproses akan menggerakkan motor servo yang dikehendaki oleh pengguna dan
seterusnya memberi gerakan robot yang dikehendaki. Secara mudahnya, projek ini
mengkehendaki pelajar membina sebuah robot yang mampu berfungsi dengan sempurna.
Kelainan robot ini berbanding robot automatik dan kawalan manual ialah pergerakkannya
dikawal sepenunhya mengunakan komputer. Projek ini sangat bermanfaat dalam
memperolehi pengetahuan dan pengalaman baru kepada pelajar.






CHAPTER 1


INTRODUCTION






1.1 Introduction


A robot is a reprogrammable, multi-functional, manipulator designed to move material, parts,
tools, or specialized devices through variable programmed motions for the performance of a
variety of task. - Robot Institute of America. The word robot has many different
definitions, if it is refer to dictionaries and many encyclopedias. According to Robot Institute
of America:


A robot is a re-programmable multifunctional manipulator designed to move
material, parts, tools, or specialized devices through variable programmed motions for
performance of a variety of tasks.


In a robot system, the number of independent Joint variables can be used to determine the
number of degrees of freedom .The term degrees of freedom are the set of independent
displacements that specify completely the displaced or deformed position of the body or
system.In the simplest way, its describe the number of ways a robot can move. In general,
there are four different geometric configurations of robots. They are Cartesian Robots,
Cylindrical Robots, Spherical Robots, and Articulated Robots. The base rotations simulate
the twisting of a human torso. The shoulder and elbow pivots on axis each. A robot can be
actuate by three kind of means, which are hydraulic actuating system, electrical actuating
system, and pneumatic actuating system
A robot manipulator can be divided into three sections, which are the arm, that consisting of
one or more segments and joints; the wrist, that usually consisting of one to three segments
and joints, and a gripper or other means of attaching and grasping.




A particle that moves in three dimensional space has three translational displacement
components as DOFs, while a rigid body would have at most six DOFs including three
rotations. Translation is the ability to move without rotating, while rotation is angular motion
about some axis.


In three dimensions, the six DOFs of a rigid body are sometimes described using these
nautical names:
1. Moving up and down (heaving);

2. Moving left and right (swaying);

3. Moving forward and backward (surging);

4. Tilting up and down (pitching);

5. Turning left and right (yawing);

6. Tilting side to side (rolling).



The robotic arm to be construct in this project is only have 5 degerees of freedom, where it
doesnt have the Part of Yaw. It means that the wrist cannot turn to left or right, depending to
base rotation and shoulder movement to pick material that beyond the picking area of the
wrist part.Most of the robot developed is a computer controlled robot.In a computer
controlled robot system, the robot software consist of the control software and the application
software.The control software or operating system of the robotis was designed to controlling
the basic operations of robot, processing data measurements from the sensor, planning the
path for the motions, and communicating with internal and external devices.The operating
system is written using the high level computer programming such as FOTRAN, COBOL,
PROLOG and LISP.The application software is the program written by user for
applications.The robot can perform the task specified in the users written program.


1.1 Background of problem



The major problem will be occurred in the most critical part, which is constructing the serial
servo controller circuit.Using the concept of learn from the basic, there is lack of knowledge
in constructing the circuit, and there will be some difficulties too, in applying the electrical
and electronic knowledge in this project.Huge effort and full guidance from mr.wise
suprevisor is crucial in order to completing the project.The software used is also fresh in
project executors thought.It will need an extra effort to finally understand the concept and
how to applicate it in this project.When constructing the mechanical part, the main
consideration will be time, and machine availibility.at the lab.The competition will be
between all the final year students who are constructing their projects prototype. Instead, the
available machine will not be in a good condition too.The students will have too wait and
queu for their turn.




1.2 Objective



The main objective of this project is to build a pc based Robotic arm that are capable of
picking and placing an object. During the completion of this project, the objectives to be
achieved is to:


Understand the basic Configuration of Robot

To understand and apply the Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0 for robot programming.
To construct the electrical Diagram
Fabricate and run the robot


1.3 Scope



In this project, the scope is to build a pc based robotic arm that are capable of picking and re-
placing and object. Although the task is looked like simple, its actually consumed a hard
work and time in applying the knowledge in electrical, mechanical and computer
programming. The physical of the robot is manually constructed using the skills gained in
Manufacturing Process Subject. The mechanical job involved in this project including
fabricating the aluminum body of the robot using MagnaBend machine, drilling holes using
the drilling machine,cutting the material using horizontal bandsaw machine and other
machine that are appropriate to be used in this project. Knowledge in electrical and electronic
is also compulsory to build this robotic arm, because the most critical part in this project is to
build the serial servo controller which cost a lot of knowledge and deep understanding in
electrical and electronic field. Instead, the PIC to be used in this project is also need to be
programmed and build. The software to control the robotic arm is also an essential part.in
this project. The software will be build by using the Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0. The position
and sequence of the servo motor will be controlled using the software.


1.4 Significance of Study



The study of robotic is a very broad topic because the study consisits of three main field of
engineering, which is electrical, mechanical and electronics. Firm knowledge on this three
diciplines is compulsory in order to develop the fully functioning basic robotic system.
Reference from the previous researcher may offer good input to the new comers in building a
succesful functioning robot.


The completion of this project is very useful especially to undergraduate robotic major
students. It can be very helpful to them, in which, a clear view about the concept of robotics
can be obtained through the hands-on activity, using the existing completed robot. Cost can
also be reduced by using the existing prototype robot rather than to purchase a brand new
robot. The low initial cost compared to the readily available robot and low cost of
maintainance can help in gaining more money to develop the more sophisticated equipment
for instructional purposes.A project like this should be encouraged to all students, because it
can help to build self confidence, to challenge themselves to build something that is beyond
their capability.






1.5 Conclusion



During the completion of this chapter, a brief understanding about the robotic arm should be
achieved. An adequate knowledge in three diciplines of engineering is essential in order to
built a succesful functioning robot.The main goal of this project should always being
highlighted each time the project is being undergoes.









CHAPTER 2


LITERATURE REVIEW




2.0 Introduction



This chapter will discuss and describe about the robotic arm. Nowadays, the robotic arm is
widely used as part of automation system in a manufacturing field. The robotic arm is
assigned for many tasks that are described as repetitive, continuous and cumbersome for
human operators to accomplish. Although the initial cost is high, the company will not sigh
to pay the bill because of its effectiveness and its undoubtedly efficiency. This project is
about to build a smaller scale pc based robotic arm. The concept used is similar to the larger
scale but the capability is different. The safety measurement for the robot will be lower as it
is not sophisticated as industrial robot, which was equipped with many sensors to detect the
presence of human as a maximum safety precaution. However, the project will benefit to the
new comers and can be a platform for next further understanding to robotics. In this chapter,
it will discuss the previous research made by the researchers and universitys lecturer. The
researches were stressed on about the advance control of the robot and safety precautions for
the robot in human environment.




2.1 General Operation of the Machine


The Pc based robotic arm is a robotic arm controlled by a computer or a pc. The user will
operate the robot arm by deciding the parameter needed, at the built serial servo controller
interface. The interface is designed and built using the Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0.The
parameters to be computed is the angle of rotation of the servo motor. The servo motor
provides the movement of the robotic arm. The serial servo controller need to control 8 servo
motors that will needed to move this 6-axis robotic arm. The major task to be completed by
this robot is to do the pick and place a material. The task is similar to robotic arm for part
transfer that is available at the industry.





Personal
Computer
(User
interface)
Serial servo
controller
8 channels of Servo
motor (attached at
mechanical Construction





Fig 2.1: General Operation of the Pc based robotic arm

2.2 Previous Researches



2.2.1 Human-like behavior of robot arms: general considerations and the handwriting
task. Part I: mathematical description of human-like motion: distributed
positioning and virtual fatigue




This two-part paper is concerned with the analysis and achievement of human-like behavior
by robot arms (manipulators). The analysis involves three issues:

(i) The resolution of the inverse kinematics problem of redundant robots,


(ii) The separation of the end-effector's motion into two components- the smooth (low
accelerated) component and the fast (accelerated) component

(iii) The fatigue of the motors (actuators) of the robot joints.


This paper deals with the problem of how to control a robot to make it move like a human
and thus use the advantages of this behavior. From a mechanical point of view, a robot
resembling the human should be kinematically redundant. Its mechanism should possess a
higher degree of mobility than that required for a given motion task define operational space.
The kinematics redundancy contributes to robot dexterity and flexible coping with
unpredictable changes in its environment. It makes possible the avoidance of mechanical
limits in robot joints, the avoidance of obstacles, the avoidance of singularities, a fault
tolerant operation, the optimization of robot kinematics and dynamics, the distribution of
joint motions in a human-like manner, and so on.

.



2.2.1.1Robot Arm Kinematics and Dynamics



Fig 2.2: Robot arm internal position

The Distributed Positioning concept is formulated in analogy to human behavior and is
intended to model a robot arm employed for fast manipulation .Redundancy is added to a
basic nonredundant con in order to allow the execution. The idea is to separate the required
motion of the end-e into two components, a smooth component and a highly accelerated one.
At the same time, the robot joints are separated into two groups, one group of joints
representing the high-inertia nonredundant part of the robot, and the other group containing
the low-inertia redundancy. The distribution of the original end-e motion is made such that
the high-inertia nonredundant part implements the smooth component, while the low-inertia
redundancy is responsible for the accelerated component.

The virtual fatigue concept resembles the behavior of the human arm in the presence of
fatigue. For example, the redistribution of motion when some joint ` feels a fatigue. The
virtual fatigue model method is suggested that can be used in robots to emulate the effect of
biological fatigue in human muscles. The expectation is that such a method will provide
human-like movements in the robot joints.



In the absence of the fatigue, the human-like performance is achieved by using the
partitioning of the robot joints into smooth and accelerated ones (called distributed
positioningDP). The actuator fatigue is represented by the so-called virtual fatigue (VF)
concept. When fatigue starts, the human-like performance is achieved by engaging more the
joints (motors) that are less fatigued, as does the human arm.

(Potkonjak V., Tzafestas S., Djordjevic G., 2001)



2.2.2 Present and Future Robot Control Development an Industrial

Perspective


By applying and developing advanced control, it is possible to continuously improve the
robot performance, which is necessary in order to increase performance and lower cost of
industrial robot automation. Moreover, it has been necessary to adapt the robot control to the
plant automation systems with respect to application protocols, communication systems, I/O-
interfaces, PLC-equipment, user interfaces, process equipment, etc., for optimal use of the
robots and for short change-over times between different products (RIA & NIST, 2000). In
the automotive industry, which will be the starting point for this presentation, full robot
automation is usually found for car body assembly, press tending, painting and coating and to
some extent for engine and power train assembly (ABB-1, 2003).

2.2.2.1 Present Industrial Robot Control Development


One example of a present popular development is about multi robot control. Different
solutions are now presented by several robot manufacturers, though a couple of
manufacturers already have offered this as a product for some years (Bredin, 2005). The
main reason for adopting multi robot control in industry is the possibility to reduce
production cost by having robots working in parallel, especially for low speed processes as
arc welding. Other benefits are that several robots can be controlled from one controller,
floor space is saved, collision avoidance performance can be improved and cycle times can
be reduced.

Related to the need of multi robot control are the requirements to develop robots with very
high load capacity (ABB-2, 2001). Robots handling loads up to 500 kg have been developed
to handle, for example, parts of car bodies. Another popular development direction is towards
new safety arrangements in robot installations (ESALAN Systems, 2006).



One short term motivation for this is the possibility to replace electrical and mechanical
working range limits with safe software limits, which makes it cheaper and faster to
configure a robot cell .Still another ongoing development direction can be found in using
wireless communication in robot systems (Katzel, 2004).

The biggest interest for wireless is with respect to the communication between the teach
pendant and the controller, but there is also an interest in wireless communication between
the robot controller and sensors and process equipment (Frey, Endresen, Kreitz, & Scheibe,
2005). Other ongoing improvements of the robot technology are related to the user- and
application interfaces of the robot controller with the purpose to make robot programming,
operation and maintenance simpler even though the complexity

2.2.2.2 Scenarios about Future Industrial Robot Control Development


A robot that is able to work automatically according to a program generated, supervised,
edited and recovered by direct physical interaction between human and robot will of course
also solve many of the problems encountered when introducing robots in small and medium
size enterprises (SMErobot, 2005). Developing robot control for such human robot
collaboration and Industrial robot development has for sure not reached its limits and there is
still a lot of work to be done to bridge the gap between academic research and industrial
development and to intensify academic research in directions that target new applications and
new flexible automation concepts.

Robot control is a key competence for robot manufacturers and a lot of development is made
to increase robot performance, reduce robot cost and introduce new functionalities. Examples
of development areas that get big attention today are multi robot control, safe control, force
control, 3D vision, remote robot supervision and wireless communication. The application
benefits from these developments are discussed as well as the technical challenges that the
robot manufacturers meet.
Model-based control is now a key technology for the control of industrial robots and models
and control schemes are continuously refined to meet the requirements on higher
performance even when the cost pressure leads to the design of robot mechanics that is more
difficult to control. Driving forces for the future development of robots can be found in, for
example, new robot applications in the automotive industry, especially for the final assembly,
in small and medium size enterprises, in foundries, in food industry and in the processing and
assembly of large structures. Some scenarios on future robot control development are
proposed. One scenario is that light-weight robot concepts could have an impact on future car
manufacturing and on future automation of small and medium size enterprises (SMEs).

Such a development could result in modular robots and in control schemes using sensors in
the robot arm structure, sensors that could also be used for the implementation of redundant
safe control. Introducing highly modular robots will increase the need of robot installation
support, making Plug and Play functionality even more important. One possibility to obtain a
highly modular robot program could be to use a recently developed new type of parallel
kinematics robot structure with large work space in relation to the robot foot print. For
further efficient use of robots, the scenario of adaptive robot performance is introduced. This
means that the robot control is optimized with respect to the thermal and fatigue load on the
robot for the specific program that the robot performs. The main conclusion of the
presentation is that industrial robot development is far away from its limits and that a lot of
research and development is needed to obtain a more widely use of robot automation in
industry. (Torgny Brogrdh, 2006)

2.2.3 An Adaptive Output Feedback Controller for Robot Arms: Stability
and Experiments





An adaptive output feedback controller for robot arms is developed in this paper. To estimate
the joint velocities, a simple nonlinear observer based on the desired velocity and bounded
position tracking error is proposed. The closed-loop system formed by the adaptive
controller, observer and the robot system is shown to be semi-global asymptotically stable.
Extensive experiments conducted on a two link robot manipulator confirm the effectiveness
of the proposed controllerobserver structure. To highlight the performance of the proposed
scheme, it is compared via experiments with a well-known passivity based control algorithm.

The experimental platform consists of a two-link direct drive planar manipulator shown in
Fig. 1. Each axis is driven by an NSK-Mega torque direct drive servo-motor which is capable
of up to 3 revolutions per second maximum velocity and position feedback resolution of up
to 156,400 counts per revolution. The base motor is rated to deliver up to 245 N move torque
output, and the elbow motor produces torque output up to 40 N m. The NSK Mega torque
motor system consists of motor and its driver unit. This is a stand-alone system that contains
all the elements needed for complete closed-loop servo motor control.

The NSK motor consists of a high torque direct drive brush-less actuator, a high resolution
brush-less resolver, and a high precision bearing. The Mega torque motor is capable of
producing extremely high torque at low speeds suitable for direct drive applications. The
heavy-duty bearing eliminates the need for separate mechanical support since the motor case
can often support the load directly. The direct drive actuator eliminates the need for gear
reduction, so repeatability is limited only by the resolution of the position feedback.



Fig 2.3:Two-link robot manipulator





Also, direct coupling of the motor and load permits tighter and more direct control of the
load. Real-time control is performed with a host computer (Pentium PC) and a servo DSP
(TMS320C30). The integer and floating-point arithmetic units equipped on the TMS320C30
DSP can obtain a peak arithmetic performance of 33.3 million floating point computations
per second. This allows complex algorithms to be executed using very small sampling
periods. (Pagilla R., Tomizuka M., 2001)

2.2.4 An Experimental Study on Compliance Control for a Redundant Personal

Robot Arm


The paper introduces the concept of adaptable functional compliance, and describes the main
features of the robotic arm used for the experimental research work. In order to satisfy the
requirements of increasing the safety in the interaction and the robot functionality in tasks
performed in cooperation with humans, three solutions are developed and tested for the
considered personal robot. In this paper, it is shown how a compliant behavior for a robot
manipulator used in personal assistance.

When designing the control of a personal robot manipulator, at least three aspects need to be
considered:


Safety: The control system has to guarantee that robot movements are not dangerous
for possible injuries to humans, nor to the environment or the robot itself.
Human-Robot interaction. : Personal care and assistance tasks require that the robotic
assistant is able to get in touch with the user move things in contact or around
him/her, in accordance with his/her own movements.
Functionality. Personal robots are also meant to accomplish service tasks for humans.


2.2.4.1 Adaptable Functional Compliance


The research work presented in this paper focuses on the realization of an adaptable
functional compliance for a personal robot aimed at helping disabled users in housekeeping
and personal care. Three different control schemes have been formulated:


the compliance control with self-regulating compliance in the Cartesian space;

the compliance control with self-regulating compliance in the joint space;

the impedance Compliance control
All the three control strategies are enriched by self-regulated compliance in order to increase
the robot functionality in the interaction with objects and persons. The Dexter, shown in Fig.
1, is an 8 degree-of freedom (d.o.f.) anthropomorphic robot arm designed for applications of

assistance to disabled and elderly people:








Fig2. 4:Dexter Mechanical Arm





Dexter has an 8-revolute-joint kinematic structure, composed of shoulder, elbow and wrist.
The kinematic design was influenced by the reachable workspace and, thus, by typical
dimensions and localization of the furniture and objects in a house. A minimum safety level
in interaction is guaranteed by the low operating velocity (under 0.2 m/s) and by the light and
flexible mechanical structure. Robot structure has eight joints, J0 J7. The eight joints are
not actuated singularly by a motor located on each link, which are actuated by motors and
driving gear-boxes directly connected to the articulation axis. The motors for the actuation of
joints J2 . . . J7, instead, are all installed on one side of link 1 and for them the mechanical
transmission system is realized with pulleys and steel cables.

The on-board architecture is based on an AT platform and two PC104 racks located in the
back of the mobile base on which the arm is mounted, in the MOVAID system. The low-
level arm controller, realized by means of two MEI 104/DSP-400 board controllers, runs on
one of the two PCs. The control actions are described in C language, using a specific function
library, and the communication among CPU, DSP and peripheral units is in binary code on a
Data Bus.

Both the sections dedicated to the implementation of the on-board PID controllers, acting on
the eight axes of the robot, and the I/O coordination functions are realized on the DSP. The
axis control boards send 16-bit analog command signals to the DC or brushless servo-motors
and high resolution step and direction signals to the steppers. All the three implemented
control strategies reveal comparable performance as regards the regulation of interaction
forces, only the compliance control scheme in the joint space and the impedance compliance
controller can effectively manage the coupling and the anthropomorphism of the robotic
structure. (Zollo L, Siciliano B., Laschi C.2003)





2.2.5 Experimental Evaluation of Model-based Controllers on a Direct-drive

Robot Arm


In this paper, the experimental evaluations of four model-based control algorithms were
discussed. It was tested on a 2-dof vertical direct-drive robot arm. A direct-drive arm is a
mechanical arm in which the shafts of articulated joints are directly coupled to the rotors of
motors with high torque. Model-based controllers refer to those control algorithms requiring
explicit knowledge of the closed-form robot dynamics for effective implementation. Because
of the direct drive nature of the arm, the robot nonlinear dynamics cannot be neglected for
controller design purposes.




2.2.5.1 Experimental System Description



The experimental set-up consists of a direct drive vertical robot arm with 2 d.o.f, whose rigid
links were joined with revolute joints. It is equipped with joint position sensors, motor
drivers, a Digital Signal Processor (DSP) motion control board, a host computer 486 PC and
software environment which generates a user-friendly interface.


Both links were made of 6061 aluminum, 0.45 m long. They are actuated by brushless direct-
drive servo actuator to drive the joints without gear reduction. The servos are operated in
torque mode, so that the motors will act as torque source and accept an analog voltage as a
reference of torque signal. Position information is obtained from incremental encoders
located on the motors which have a resolution of 1,024,000 p/rev for the first motor and
655,360 p/rev for the second one.



Fig 2.5: Experimental Arm








Fig.2.6: Robot Arm


In this paper, the experimental evaluations of 4 types of controllers were focused: PD control,
Computed-Torque control, PD+ control, and PD control with computed feed forward. These
controllers include Coulomb and viscous friction compensation as well as cancellation of
gravitational torques.
2.2.5.2 PD Control


It is the simplest and popular control scheme used to solve the point-to-point robot control.
However, this controller does not provide exact tracking for time-varying desired joint
position, but it does guarantee a bounded position error.





2.2.5.3 Computed-torque Control


Its also called ``inverse dynamics control''. This control scheme uses the robot dynamics in
the feedback loop for linearization and decoupling. If the manipulator and friction dynamic
models are exact, then the computed torque controller achieves dynamic decoupling of all the
joints using nonlinear feedback, resulting in an asymptotically stable linear time-invariant
error dynamics, and thus asymptotically exact tracking.




2.2.5.4 PD+ Control



The first two terms on the right-hand side represent a PD controller, while the remaining
depends on the robot dynamics. It provides asymptotically exact tracking without exact
linearization.
2.2.5.5 PD Control with Computed Feed Forward



This controller consists of a linear PD controller plus a feed forward of the nominal dynamics
computed along the desired trajectory. The advantage of this controller is that once the
desired trajectory for a given task has been specified, and then the feed forward can be
computed off-line, which can eventually reduce the computer burden.


The tests of four control algorithms were presented on a direct-drive robot arm. The
performance of these controllers was compared with the linear PD control. As expected, the
observation shows that those controllers compensating in some way for the robot dynamics
attained better tracking accuracy. This is particularly true when fast motions were requested
to the arm. Under the root-mean-square average performance index, the best controller was
the PD control with computed feed forward followed by the PD+ control and the computed
torque control (Reyes F., Kelly R,. 2000)
2.3 CONCLUSION


At the end of this chapter, deep comprehension about the robotic through the past researches
should be achieved. Lesson from previous research should be taken as a step stone, to build a
successful and functioning robotic arm. Even the approach stressed on the research was not
best comprehended; the information obtained should be kept as a treasure that will be used in
future for specific purposes.







CHAPTER 3


METHODOLOGY





3.0 INTRODUCTION

The aim of this project is to bulid a robotic arm that is revolute type and closely resembles
the human arm.It is a robotic arm that has the same features as the most industrial robot used
in industry, such as ABB robot and KUKA robot, but it is to be build in smaller scale and not
as sophisticated as this two kind of robots.


Basically, it has 6-Degrees of Freedom, which mean the rotation or the moving part of the
robot is consist of the rotation of robot base, robot shoulder, robot elbow , robot wrist and
the movement of the end effector or the gripper. This project includes a controller board to
interface the arm to a personal computer (pc), and give the details to the Visual Basic
software that used to control the arm.The arm controller board is designed to receive serial
input commands, so that it can be interfaced to any microcontroller or computer system.


The arms rotatting base is powered by a single servo that will rotates the rest of the arm in a
maximum angle of 180 degrees.arc.The shoulder part is the part mounted on the robot base.It
is an elevation joint that can move the arm through 180 degrees from horizontal to vertical on
each side.In the shoulder part, is uses 2 servos.The purpose of using a couple of servos is to
gain more torque to lift the rest of the arm, as well as the object that it may be
grasping.Attached to the shoulder part is an elbow.The elbow use a single servo that will
enable it to move through 180 degrees.The final part is wrist part, attached with the gripper.It
use single servo motor, that will provide movement for the gripper.