The design is based on an open chain which has 5 degrees of freedom, the base and the gripper have twisting joints whereas the shoulder, elbow and arm have revolute joints. The gripper design ensures that both the jaws move parallely so that it can easily hold a cuboidal object.The gripper is detachable from the arm.
The simulation is done using the inverse kinematics model of VREP and for a given target position, it gives the angular rotation of each revolute joint.
The links and arm of the robotic arm were manufactured from an acrylic sheet using laser cutting. The spacers of the robotic arm were manufactured using 3D printing technology. The material used was ABS.
The servo motors for of the robotic arm are powered by a Buck Converter which converts the 12V from the Lithium Polymer battery to 6V. ROS is installed on Raspberry Pi to control the motors and it receives the angular position of each motor from VREP.
To move the manipulator at a specified coordinate (x1,y1), pickup an object at that point and place the object at a specified coordinate (x2,y2).
To modify the gripper to perform a chosen industrial task.
To detect the object and automatically perform the task.