Low Cost Shadow Function based Articulated

Robotic Arm

Authored by
Vishwajit Nandi, Pronadeep Bora
June 12, 2015

Outline
Introduction
Aim of the Project
Factors under Consideration
Material Selection
System Design
The Control System
Conclusion

Low Cost Shadow Function based Articulated Robotic Arm

Introduction
Requirement of Robotic Arm took birth when humans felt the importance of reaching
places where a Human Arm cannot reach without harming itself or to do things beyond
its capabilities.
A Robotic Arm is a robot manipulator, usually programmable, with similar functions
to a human arm.
Application of Robotic Arms includes Cranes, Excavators etc.
Principle of Robotic Arm is used in various industries for manufacturing and production
purposes.

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Low Cost Shadow Function based Articulated Robotic Arm

Aim of the Project

To build an Articulated Robotic Arm.
To establish a proper way of controlling the Robotic Arm.
To establish 5 Degree of Freedom within the workspace of the Arm.
The Robotic Arm should replicate the moment of the Human Arm.
The final design must be cost effective.

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Low Cost Shadow Function based Articulated Robotic Arm

Factors under Consideration

Material Selection
1. Cost
2. Weight of robot
3. Ease of manufacturing the parts
4. Ease of assembly
5. Strength and durability of the parts

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Low Cost Shadow Function based Articulated Robotic Arm

Requirements for efficient Power transmission

1. Small size
2. Low weight and moment of inertia
3. High effective stiffness
4. Accurate and constant transmission ratio
5. Low energy losses and friction for better responsiveness of the control system

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Low Cost Shadow Function based Articulated Robotic Arm

Material Selection
For the frame
Available options for building the arm frame were
Beryllium, Steel costly
Ceramics brittle
Aluminium(Al), Magnesium(Mg) and Titanium(Ti) ageing, creep in under constant
loads, high thermal expansion coefficient etc.
Fiber plastics and Glass-reinforced plastics costly
Considering all the factors and keeping the price low a Al-Li alloy was finally selected for the
purpose.

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Low Cost Shadow Function based Articulated Robotic Arm

For the actuators

Servo motors were used because of its high precision, dynamic performances, reliability
and stability.

Servo motor can produce very high torque characteristics.

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Low Cost Shadow Function based Articulated Robotic Arm

Torque calculation for the actuators

Wx : Weight of link x
Lx : Length of link x

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Low Cost Shadow Function based Articulated Robotic Arm

The servo motors used in the arm are thus chosen according to this calculation.
Torque about Joint 1:
L1
L2
L3
W1 + (L1 +
) W2 + (L1 + L2 +
) W3
2
2
2
L4
+(L1 + L2 + L3 +
) W4 + (L1 + L2 + L3 + L4 ) W5
2

T1 =

(1)

Torque about Joint 2:

T2 =

L3
L4
L2
W2 + (L2 +
) W3 + (L2 + L3 +
) W4
2
2
2
+ (L2 + L3 + L4 ) W5

(2)

Torque about Joint 3:

T3 =

L3
L4
W3 + (L3 +
) W4 + (L3 + L4 ) W5
2
2

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Low Cost Shadow Function based Articulated Robotic Arm

System Design
Power Supply Unit
A High Current Step-Down Transformer is used to drop the voltage of the input AC
line.
The Bridge Rectifier Circuit is made using IN5408 Power Diodes and High Storage
Capacitor(3300 F).
Each motor is given a separate voltage regulator to provide enough power. The voltage
regulator used is 7806 which can give a maximum of 1A.

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Low Cost Shadow Function based Articulated Robotic Arm

Arduino based PCB

A Custom-made board based on Arduino Duemilanove has been made, optimized in
design for the purpose of the project.

A preloaded Arduino Duemilanove Boot-loader, which directly supports Arduino Programming Language making the programming simpler, is used.

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J1
C10

IN

OUT

IN

C7

GND

POWER_JACKSLT
VCC

100nF

GND

IC2
7805

OUT

IN

C15

GND

10uF/40V

GND

GND

OUT

IN

C16

GND

10uF/40V

IC8
7806

OUT

C17

IN

GND

IC3
7806

10uF/40V

OUT

10uF/40V

C11
C8 100nF

C6
100nF

100nF

22

GND
8

AGND
GND

PB0(ICP1/CLKO/PCINT0)
PB1(OC1A/PCINT1)
PB2(SS/OC1B/PCINT2)
PB3(MOSI/OC2A/PCINT3)
PB4(MISO/PCINT4)
PB5(SCK/PCINT5)

1
2
3

PWM3

JP3

1
2
3

RST

GND

IC7
7806
C20
10uF/40V
GND

1
3
5

2
4
6

1
2
3

GND

1k

R3

10uF/40V

JP9
GND
JP4

2
3
4
5
6
11
12
13

OUT
GND

10uF/40V GND

PWM5
GND
JP5
GND

20
21

PB7(XTAL2/TOSC2/PCINT7)
PD0(RXD/PCINT16)
PD1(TXD/PCINT17)
PD2(INT0/PCINT18)
VCC
PD3(INT1/OC2B/PCINT19)
PD4(T0/XCK/PCINT20)
PD5(T1/OC0B/PCINT21)
AVCC
PD6(AIN0/OC0A/PCINT22)
AREF
PD7(AIN1/PCINT23)

1
2
3
4
5
6

14
15
16
17
18
19

1
2
3

PWM6

JP6

ATMEGA48/88/168-PU

GND

C4

22pF

23
24
25
26
27
28

R2

Q1

C3

10

GND
VCC

22pF

RST

PC0(ADC0/PCINT8)
PC1(ADC1/PCINT9)
PC2(ADC2/PCINT10)
PC3(ADC3/PCINT11)
PC4(ADC4/SDA/PCINT12)
PC5(ADC5/SCLPCINT13)
PB6(XTAL1/TOSC1/PCINT6)

LED1

C2

GND

JP1

PC6(/RESET/PCINT14)

1k

IC1
1

3
4

IN

IC6
C19
7806

C18

GND
JP2

R4

10k

S1

OUT
GND

IC5
7806

GND

1
2

IN

GND

IC4
7806

VCC

VCC

Low Cost Shadow Function based Articulated Robotic Arm

1
2
3

VCC

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JP8

3
2
1

PWM11

GND

LED2

JP7

3
2
1

GND

PWM10

GND

1k

R5

PWM9
GND

R1
1k

GND

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Low Cost Shadow Function based Articulated Robotic Arm

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Low Cost Shadow Function based Articulated Robotic Arm

The Control System

Different Modes of Control
1. Manual Control Mode Using Position Sensors(Potentiometers)
2. Computer Control Mode Using a Computers Keyboard(via Serial Communication)

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Low Cost Shadow Function based Articulated Robotic Arm

Manual Control Mode - The Potentiometer

We connect three wires of the potentiometer to the Arduino board.
The first goes to ground from one of the outer pins of the potentiometer.
The second goes to 5 volts from the other outer pin of the potentiometer.
The middle pin of the potentiometer is connected to the analog inputs of the Arduino
Board.

By turning the shaft of the potentiometer, we change the amount of resistance on

either side of the wiper which is connected to the center pin of the potentiometer.
This changes the relative closenessof that pin to 5 volts and ground, giving us a
dfferent analog input.

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Low Cost Shadow Function based Articulated Robotic Arm

Manual Control Mode - PWM Generation

The 10 bit Successive Approximation ADCs that comes along with the PDIP of ATMega328P converts the analog inputs to represent 210 = 1024 digital levels.

0 Volt analog input corresponds to 0D ; 5 Volt analog input corresponds to 1024D

These 1024 digital quantized levels are mapped directly to the 180 rotation of the Servo
Motor by generation of PWM signals in any of the 6 channels as per requirement.

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Low Cost Shadow Function based Articulated Robotic Arm

Manual Control Mode - Work flow

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Low Cost Shadow Function based Articulated Robotic Arm

Computer Controlled Mode

2 keys in the keyboard are defined
one to increase the duty cycle of the PWM Signal
other to decrease the duty cycle of the PWM Signal.
When a key, assigned for increasing/decreasing the duty cycle, is pressed its ASCII
value is transferred to the Controller Board and the Servo Motor rotates CW/CCW
accordingly.
Programmable Serial USART of ATMega328P is used for communication between the
computer and the Controller Board.

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Low Cost Shadow Function based Articulated Robotic Arm

Computer Controlled Mode - Workflow

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Low Cost Shadow Function based Articulated Robotic Arm

Conclusion
The Final Working Model of the Project taken in hand was a
1. Low Cost 5 DOF Articulated Robotic Arm.
2. Low Cost Potentiometer-based controller.
3. Robotic Arm which can replicate a Human Hand movement.
4. Robotic Arm which can be controlled using a computer keyboard.

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References
[1] Gillespie, R.B. and Colgate, J. E.; Peshkin, M. A., A General Framework for Robot Control, IEEE Transactions on
Robotics and Automation, vol.17, no.4, pp.391-401, Aug 2001.
[2] J. C. Trinkle and R. James Milgram, Complete Path Planning for Closed Kinematics Chains with Spherical Joints, SAGE
International Journal of Robotic Research, vol.21, no.9, pp.773- 789, Sep 2002.
[3] Gemeinder, M. and Gerke, M., GA-based path planning for mobile robot systems employing an active search algorithm,
Applied Soft Computing, vol.3, no.2, pp.149-158, Sep 2003.
[4] Jegede Olawale; Awodele Oludele; Ajayi Ayodele; Ndong Miko, Development of a Microcontroller Based Robotic Arm,
in Proceedings of the 2007 Computer Science and IT Education Conference, Mauritius, 2007, pg. 549-557.
[5] Six-servo Robot Arm[online]. Available:http://www.arexx.com
[6] Robotic Arm[online]. Available:http://explorerschools.nasa.gov/
[7] Arduino Duemilanove[online].
Available:http://arduino.cc/en/Main/arduinoBoardDuemilanove

Thank You