CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Introduction

Robotics is regarded as a branch of engineering in which mechanical, electronic and

software branches of engineering are blended together to achieve a desired goal. Robotics
is the engineer-ring and technology of robots and involves the design, manufacture and
applications of robots.

Robot is most often perceived as a device that is designed and manufactured to perform
automat-tic tasks that are programmed within it with efficiency greater than human
beings. However, this level of automation is not yet achieved by robots.

Our Senior Design Project (SDP) is also based on a robot. We have made a Spider Robot
which looks like a real spider, as it has 6 legs. Each leg has two joints, so each leg has
two degree of freedom. The movement of the legs is controlled by using servo motors,
one for each joint.

The servo motors are driven by FPGA board. The angles at which servo motors work are
defined are programmed in the FPGA board.

The mechanical structure of the spider robot is made of acrylic sheet. The base of the
structure is capable of holding FPGA board. There are a total of six legs as the design of
our robot resembles that of a spider. Moreover, each leg is mounted with two servo
motors, one each for setting the angular position of each joint. There are a total of 12
servo motors mounted on the legs of our spider robot.

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 CHAPTER 2

DESIGN

2.1 Design Objectives

The design of our robot was an important factor in the successful completion of the
project. The designing phase of our project involved the design of the spider structure
including base and legs.

Our main objective was to design the mechanical part in such a way that it should not
create problems later when we start designing the code. It was also made sure that the
programming should also be done keeping in mind the design of the mechanical structure
so that it should be compatible with the proposed design of the mechanical structure.
Especial care was taken regarding the base of the mechanical structure because it had to
bear the weight of the electronic circuitry and servo motors. The legs also had be to
designed in such a way that it should provide complete support to the base and can move
the whole structure without any difficulty.

The electronic circuitry also needed to be designed without any flaws because it has to
run the FPGA as well as servo motors for the movement of the robot.

2.2 Design Issues

As we set our hands to start the project, the first and most important issue raised. The
issue was regarding the mechanical structure of the robot. The design of the legs of the
mechanical structure was a big problem because it consisted of two joints. We proposed
different designs but due to lack of experience in designing physical structures our design
was not encouraged by our external advisor. So we had to outsource the mechanical
structure for our project.

The second issue that we faced was failure of different components in the electronic
circuitry. The voltage supply to the motors got over the rated supply. As a result several
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motors got damaged, so we had to replace them with the ones. To provide the rated
voltage supply to all the components, we had to use buck converters.

The third issue that we faced was in the programming. The programming was not
compatible with the leg structure. The angles at which the servo motors were to be
positioned were not as per the requirements of the design of the leg structure. So we tried
modifying the code several time still the desired results were meet.

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 CHAPTER 3

DESIGN SPECIFICATIONS

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 CHAPTER 4

RESULTS AND ANALYSIS

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 CHAPTER 5

ECONOMIC ANALYSIS

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 CHAPTER 6

CONCLUSION

7.1 Conclusion

It was a good experience to work on this project. We got many new things to learn from
this project. This project taught us how to tackle the problems and difficulties. We learnt
time management through the completion period of this project. We also learnt team
management during the completion of this project.

This project is a prototype of a spider robot that can be utilized for civil and military
purposes. This project can form guidelines for the future innovations in the field of
robotics especially for making the robots for surveillance related purposes.

The spider robot is better than those robots which use wheels for the movement. The
spider robot is expected to walk through the rough terrain, a feature that can provide it
lead against a wheeled robot. But as far as speed is concerned a wheeled robot is likely to
be a better option because a legged robot has not much to offer for the applications where
the speed is a major concern.

To conclude, a spider robot needs innovations in the future to find place in a thriving
robotic market. It can be optimized to meet the future needs of the technology world.

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 CHAPTER 7

FUTURE RECOMMENDATIONS

Future Recommendations

The spider robot has the space for betterment. It can be optimized so that in the future it
can find its place in many applications. Some of the future recommendations for the
optimization of the spider robot are:

 The legs of the spider can be made more flexible to achieve maximum efficiency.
 The ability to clear the large obstacles can be enhanced.
 A real spider can climb the wall. Keeping this in mind, a spider robot can also be
optimized to do the same.
 The speed is an area where spider robot needs much improvement.
 Another feature of a real spider is that it can stick to the bottom surface of the
roof. If this feature is developed in Spider Robot it will perform marvelous works.
 The size of the spider can be minimized so that it can perform surveillance tasks
without being noticed.