MECHANICAL DESIGN AND CONTROL OF 4 DOF

MANUPULATOPR

The usage of robotics arms in industry is become more common day by day. Industries
introduce us new robots every day by day. As our science grow day by day the robots become
more useful and accurate. So in this era of science this is a topic for robotics arm, which are
commonly use. This robotics arms are more efficient, more accurate more productivity than
any human.
INTRODUCTION TO NEW ERA
the new world of science and robotics
History of Robotic Arms in Manufacturing:
It is widely understood that the first programmable robotic arm was designed by George Devol in 1954.
Collaborating with Joseph
Engelberger - the Father of
Robotics.

At a cocktail party in 1956, Joseph

Engelberger met inventor George
Devol and the two got to talking
about George’s latest invention -
his Programmed Article Transfer
device. “Sounds like a robot to
me,” exclaimed Engelberger, who
had a deep fascination with robots
as a result of his love for writer
Isaac Asimov’s science fiction FIGURE 1 UNIMATE // THE FIRST INDUSTRIAL ROBOT
stories.

In 1957, Engelberger, who at the time was director of Consolidated Controls Corp. (Condec subsidiary)
located in Bethel, Connecticut, convinced Condec’s CEO to finance the development of Devol’s
invention. After almost two years in development, Engelberger and Devol produced a prototype - the
Unimate #001.

Devol established the first robot company, Unimation in 1956, in the USA. Then in 1962 General
Motors implemented the Unimate robotic arm in its assembly line for the production of cars. A few years
later, a mechanical engineer at Stanford University, Victor Scheinman was developing a robotic arm
that was one of the first to be completely controlled by a computer in 1969. This industrial robot, known
as the Stanford Arm was the first six axes robotic arm and influenced a number of commercial robots
that followed. A Japanese company, Nachi, developed their first hydraulic industrial robotic arm in 1969
and after this a German firm, Kuka, pioneered the first commercial six axes robotic arm, called
Famulus, in 1973.
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The Industrial Robotic Arm in recent day:
These robots were utilized for spot welding tasks in manufacturing plants but as technology developed,
the range of tasks that robotic arms could perform also expanded. The advances in technology includes
the increasing variety in end-of-arm tooling that has become available. This means that Robotic arms
can perform a wide range of tasks beyond welding depending on the tools that are attached to the end
of their arms. Current innovations in end of arm tools include; 3D Printing tool heads, heating devices to
mould and bend materials, and suction devices to fold sheet metal.

FIGURE 2THE INDUSTRIAL ROBOTIC ARM

Human arms have been putting together items in factories for years. Now, new arms, industrial robotic
arms, are working in that same respect, at a faster, more accurate rate. In the manufacturing world, one
of the most common robots is the robotic arm. This metal arm, usually made up of 4-6 joints, can be
used for several manufacturing applications, including welding, material handling and material removal.

An industrial robot arm is a marvel of engineering in that it reacts similarly to our own arms. The robot
arm closely resembles a human arm, with a wrist, forearm, elbow and shoulder. The six-axis robot has
six degrees of freedom, allowing it to move six different ways, unlike the human arm, which has seven
degrees of freedom.That is where the similarities end though. Industrial robotic arms move much faster
than human arms and, without the proper safety measures, can be dangerous. Robotic arms usually
have some form of safety package or sensors available to ensure the safety of human workers.

An industrial robot arm not only increases the speed of the manufacturing process, but also the
accuracy and precision. These robotic arms cut down on worker error and labour costs. The industrial
robotic arm, which is usually made of steel or cast iron is built from the base up, ending with the wrist
and whatever end effector is needed to perform the arm’s chosen task. A robotic controller rotates
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motors that are attached to each joint. Some of the larger arms, used to lift heavy payloads, are run by
hydraulic and pneumatic means.

The arm’s job moves the end effector from place to place – picking up, putting down, taking off or
welding a part or the entire work piece. These robotic arms can be programmed to do several different
jobs or one specific job, depending on the manufacturer’s specifications and needs. While these robotic
arms are used to lift huge items, palletize heavy loads, and weld entire vehicles together, they are also
used for the little things. The precision of a robotic arm can put together even the tiniest motherboard or
microchip.

These metal marvels will continue to operate in manufacturing for years to come – arms lifting and
moving progress along until the next lightning fast innovation is introduced.

MECHANICAL DESIGN:
The Manipulator was planned in this structure as appeared in Fig with 4 Dof opportunities. It comprises
of base pivot, elbow and shoulder

PRELIMINARY DESIGN:
The preliminary design, or high-level design includes (also called FEED), often bridges a gap between
design conception and detailed design, particularly in cases where the level of conceptualization
achieved during ideation is not sufficient for full evaluation. So in this task, the overall system
configuration is defined, and schematics, diagrams, and the layout of the project may provide early
project configuration.

DETAILED DESIGN:
Following FEED is the Detailed Design (Detailed Engineering) phase, which may consist of
procurement of materials as well. This phase further elaborates each aspect of the project/product by
complete description through solid modelling, drawings as well as specifications.

Selection of the Material Aluminium is one of the important materials that is used because it is very
strong, resistant to corrosion, lightweight and affordable. Most importantly, it is very easy to cut, shape,
drill, and bend. Aluminium is a very versatile metal and it is one-third the weight of an equal volume of
steel, brass or copper and its strength approaches that of steel. So the materials selected for the
manipulator are the ordinary aluminium alloy (Density: 2.78 kg/cubic dm) and wood. In order to make
the structure rigid, the material selected for the base link is the wood. The wood has a great strength
but it is a bit heavier but we can afford its heavier weight because in this way the maximum weight of
the structure will be directed towards the base link so as the Centre of Gravity also shifted towards the
base link. The material selected for the arms should be such which is lighter in weight and it should
have a great strength. So, for that the aluminium alloy is selected. We can’t afford a heavier weight in
case of arms because then there is a possibility of cantilever effect as the centre of gravity might be
shifted away from the base link.
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SELECTION OF THE MOTORS
In order to drive the arms, we need a motor of such a kind which has a reasonable speed but should
have a great amount of torque. Because when the arms have to be stopped then the motors can easily
stop. For that purpose, we can afford a less RPM (revolutions per minute) motor but its torque should

be reasonable for rotating the arm Pulse required 3-5 Vp-p Square Wave
especially at the beginning. First motor is Voltage requirement 4.8-6 Volts
attached with the base, which means Torque at 4.8 V 19.8kg.cm
Link-1, so here it was required a high Torque at 6 V 24.7kg.cm
torque although weight can be Current at 4.8V 8mA/idle
compromised. For that purpose, Hitec Current at 6.0V 8.7mA/idle
HS−685BB+ were selected as its torque Dimension 2.59”x1.18”x2.26” is
24.7Kg. Specification of Hitec servo Weight 152g
motor HS-685BB+ is listed in Table-1. Table-1

Pulse required 3-5 Vp-p Square Wave Second motor is attached with the arm, which
Voltage requirement 4.8-6 Volts means Link-2, so here it was required a
Torque at 4.8 V 5.5kg.cm reasonable torque, not to high, but its weight
Torque at 6 V 6kg.cm should be very low. For that purpose, Hitec HS
Current at 4.8V 5.53mA/idle −635HB were selected as its torque is6Kg.com.
Current at 6.0V 6.6mA/idle Specification of Hitec servo motor HS−635HB is
Dimension 1.6”x0.8”x1.5” listed in Table-2.
Weight 52.1

Table-2

CONTROL STRATEGY OF PROTOTYPE

First of all, the inverse kinematic algorithm was run in Xilinx software and burned on the FPGA using
JTAG connector. In order to control how much the arms will rotate through an angle θ i.e. how much
the arms will cover the distance, an Arduino board was used. The Arduino UNO is an open-source
single board microcontroller. The microcontroller that is used in this board is ATmega328 with a crystal
oscillator of 16 MHz This board has 6 analog and 14 digital input/output pins from which 6 can be used
as PWM output. It also has a reset button, power jack and USB connection. It contains all the things
which are needed by microcontroller to support it.

-Motor driver used

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TB6600 motor-driver

- The driver (or amplifier) converts the indexer command signals into the power necessary to energize
the motor windings. Usually the driver requires two/three signals: pulse, direction, and enable control
(this signal can be left unconnected if not used). Pulse signal is a sequence of pulses whose frequency
determines the moving speed of the motor. The relationship is motion speed= pulse frequency * 60/
(200 subdivision number) (r/min). Direction signal is a level signal usually at either +5V or OV. Change
of this signal will turn the moving direction of the motor.

Control Types

1-autonomous control: The system with Drivers to control the FIGURE 3 TB6600 MOTOR-DRIVER

motion of motors (Dc Motor – Stepper Motor – Servo Motor) Drivers are connected to each motor. We
send signals using Arduino to decide the position we want the robot to be allocated by using the
"Accelstepper and multistep per libraries" and forward kinematics equations.

2-Manual control using MATLAB "GUI": this step was an application of what we accomplished in the
forward kinematics and Arduino control program, as we attached the autonomous control code into
Matlab GUI which acted as
manual control devices. By
using peter coke's robotics
tool, which managed us to
visualize the robot into the
GUI based on the robot
parameters.

FIGURE 4 IMAGE OF ARDUINO UNO

AMARNATH MUKHERJEE

MECHANICAL ENGINEERING

4TH YEAR
5
SOURCES-

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/301788223_Mechanical_Design_and_Control_of_Low-
Cost_Robotic_Manipulator

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/334965838_Design_and_Control_of_4-DOF_Robotic-
Arm_Simultaneously_using_Matlab_and_Arduino

https://uk.rs-online.com/web/generalDisplay.html?id=ideas-and-advice/robotic-arms-
guide#:~:text=Robotic%20arms%20are%20machines%20that,%2C%20efficiently%2C%20and
%20extremely%20accurately.

And few other books for other details.