Design, Control and Implementation of a Light Weight 5-DOF Robotic Arm using a Low-Cost Microcontroller via Radio LAN

摘要

The increasing demand for robotic applications in dynamic unstructured environments is a source of motivation for dexterous end-effectors which can cope with the wide variety of tasks encountered in these environments. This paper describes current research on a wireless controlled light-weight Robotic Manipulator. This mechanical arm is a self-contained, manual system capable of executing high-level commands from a supervisory computer through Radio LAN. A Graphical User Interface (GUI) is developed where the user can send the commands after manipulating the proper positions and orientation from the live visual feedback. To assist the user, real-time position of the arm links is shown using the input from sensors mounted on each joint. The arm has 5 degrees of freedom and can reach and grab any object (up to 8 Kilograms) within a span of 1 meter. The links used in the model are made of aluminum, while the actuators of the joints are permanent magnet type DC motors driven by Switching-Amplifiers via Pulse Width Modulation. The arm will be mounted on a remote vehicle which can be used to maneuver different tasks. The arm contains on-board microcontroller (AT89C51) which further commands the motor drivers to actuate the motors as per signals. The motor-drive of the mechanism is designed to have minimum power losses in the switching of the H-Bridge. The paper explains the fusion of emerging technologies to get a complete mechatronics product.