Canadian Journal on Electrical and Electronics Engineering Vol. 3, No.

6, July 2012

Modeling and Analysis of a 6 DOF Robotic Arm

Manipulator
Jamshed Iqbal, Raza ul Islam, and Hamza Khan

geometric and time based properties of the motion and in

particular how various links of a robot move with respect to
one another and with time. It provides an analytical
description of the spatial movements of a robot i.e. a
relationship between position and orientation of robot endeffector and its joint variables. The problem of kinematic
modeling is usually categorized into two sub-problems. First
is the forward or direct kinematics, which is the problem of
solving the Cartesian position and orientation of a
mechanism, given the knowledge of the kinematic structure
and the joint coordinates. The second sub-problem is Inverse
Kinematics (IK), which computes the joint variables using the
given information of a robots end-effector position and
orientation. In case of serial robotic arms, IK problem is
more complex than direct kinematic problem [1].
Kinematic modeling of robots also benefits the industrial
automation processes by making them semi-autonomous or
even fully autonomous. Because of the task nature and
operational environment, the industrial robots are usually
composed up of series of rigid links mounted on a base. They
operate in a manner similar to that of the human arm. A 6
Degree Of Freedom (DOF) robotic arm manipulator is widely
used in the industry. The most common applications of
industrial robots include Spot welding, Spraying, Assembling
and Manufacturing. Many of these applications actually
require accomplishment of pick and place task.
Implementation of this task essentially necessitates having the
kinematic model of the robotic arm being employed.
In the area of robot modeling and simulation, kinematics is
a rigorously researched topic. Scientific community reports
various robot modeling and analysis techniques. These are
usually based either on line transformation or point
transformation, the later being used more commonly for robot
modeling. Clothier et al. [2] proposed a geometric model to
solve the unknown joint angles required for autonomous
positioning of a robotic system. A new method, quaternion
algebra, for solution of forward kinematic problem was
derived by Sahu et al. [3]. Popovic et al. [4] developed a
strategy to analyze the upper extremity movement of the arm
while complete body kinematics of a radial symmetrical sixlegged robot was presented by Wang et al. [5]. A
mathematical approach to analyze kinematics of a humanoid
robot was reported in [6]. Cubero [7] proposed an IK model to
solve all the joint variables of a serial arm manipulator of any
type. This model was based on forward kinematic solution. A

Abstract The behavior of physical systems in many

situations may better be expressed with an analytical model.
Robot modeling and analysis essentially involve its
kinematics. For robotic manipulators having high Degrees Of
Freedom (DOF) with multiple degrees in one or more joints,
an analytical solution to the inverse kinematics is probably
the most important topic in robot modeling. This paper
develops the kinematic models a 6 DOF robotic arm and
analyzes its workspace. The proposed model makes it possible
to control the manipulator to achieve any reachable position
and orientation in an unstructured environment. The forward
kinematic model is predicated on Denavit Hartenberg (DH)
parametric scheme of robot arm position placement. Given
the desired position and orientation of the robot end-effector,
the realized inverse kinematics model provides the required
corresponding joint angles. The forward kinematic model has
been validated using Robotics Toolbox for MATLAB while the
inverse kinematic model has been implemented on a real
robotic arm. Experimental results demonstrate that using the
developed model, the end-effector of robotic arm can point to
the desired coordinates within precision of 0.5cm. The
approach presented in this work can also be applicable to
solve the kinematics problem of other similar kinds of robot
manipulators.1
Key Words Modeling of robot; Robot kinematics; Robotic
system simulation; Analysis of Serial mechanism.

I. INTRODUCTION
Analytical prediction of the behavior of physical systems in
many key situations is either extremely complicated or even
impossible. Driven with the constraints to prototype a
physical system, modeling finds enormous motivations to
study and investigate the performance of a system.
Modeling a robot involves study of its kinematic behavior.
A kinematic model is concerned with the robots motion
without considering forces producing the motions. The
kinematics of a robotic arm deals with the study of the
1
J. Iqbal is with Robotics and Control Research (RCR) Group,
COMSATS Institute of Information Technology (CIIT), Islamabad, Pakistan
(e-mail: [email protected]).
R. ul Islam is with Robotics and Control Research (RCR) Group,
COMSATS Institute of Information Technology (CIIT), Islamabad, Pakistan
(e-mail: [email protected]).
H. Khan is with Department of Advanced Robotics, Istituto Italiano di
Tecnologia (IIT), Via Morego 30, 16163 Genova, Italy (e-mail:
[email protected]).

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Canadian Journal on Electrical and Electronics Engineering Vol. 3, No. 6, July 2012
virtual model robot having forward and inverse kinematic
solutions was reported by Kuma in [8].
This paper first presents kinematic model of the robot in
Section II. The robot has been modeled for its forward
kinematics as well as IK. Section III discusses validation of
forward kinematic model using MATLAB toolbox for
robotics while Section IV presents the results of workspace
analysis of the robotic arm. Implementation of IK model on
the real robot is discussed in Section V. Finally Section VI
comments on conclusion.

The overall system (Figure 2) consists of the robot, its

controller interfaced with a standard PC and a teaching
pendant. The function of the controller (ED-Mark
(ED
IV) is to
provide ports for encoded motors to optically drive the robot.
The controller has more than 100 higher level kernel
commands that make the platform versatile. The controller
can be operated in either of the two modes: host controlled or
through teaching pendant. Pendant is the instructional pad for
manual commanding the robotic arm. This is used to let the
robot learn about any reachable coordinates. The taught points
can be saved in the controller for later retrieval
ret
and command
execution. However, the robot has to be taught every time
provided the location of the object to be manipulated is
changed. In an attempt to make this robotic arm autonomous,
an image-guided
guided robotic system has been conceived and
presented in [9].

II. KINEMATIC MODEL

The robotic
tic platform used in the present work is a 6 DOF
robotic arm manipulator ED7220C developed by ED
Corporation, Korea. The robotic arm has been extensively
used in research, development and teaching. It is basically a
serial manipulator having all joints as revolute. The arm
geometrical configuration is made up of waist, shoulder,
elbow and wrist in correspondence with the human arm joints
(Figure 1). Each of these joints except the wrist has a single
DOF. Wrist can move in two planes (roll and pitch), thus
making the end-effector
effector more flexible in terms of object
manipulation. Constructed in a vertical articulated fashion, the
robot offers visual observation of the mechanical behavior of
each joint at a glance. The arm is fully-actuated
actuated with each
DOF achieved by a precise servo motor (DME 38B50G
38B50G-115)
equipped with an optical encoder. The end-effector
effector is a two
twostate gripper having rubber pads. The built in mechanical
safety limits restrict the joint motion in case something in the
control algorithm goes wrong. TABLE I lists salient features
of the robotic arm ED7220C.

Fig. 2. Arm shown with other system components.

A. Forward Kinematic Model

The study of kinematic problem of a robot can be carried
out by different methods. Two commonly used methods are
based on Denavit-Hartenberg
Hartenberg (DH) parameters
pa
and successive
screw displacements. Both methods are systematic in nature
and more suitable for modeling serial manipulators. Also
geometric methods are frequently used by some researchers
for the serial manipulators of relatively simple geometry [10].
DH method has been used to develop the kinematic model of
the robot in this work because of its versatility and
acceptability for modeling of any number of joints and links
of a serial manipulator regardless of complexity.
Figure 3 illustrates the simplified
implified kinematic model of the
robotic arm in an inverted L pose. The first three joints are
used to move the tool point to its desired position, while the
last two joints adjust the orientation of the end-effector.
end
Link
lengths mentioned in Figure 3 are
re tabulated in TABLE II.

Fig. 1. Joints configurations in ED7220C.

TABLE I.
SALIENT FEATURES OF ED7220C
Feature
Description
Position precision
0.5mm (approx.)
Movement speed
100mm/s (max.)
Load capacity
1 Kg
Weight
33 Kg
Wrist - Pitch: 260, Roll:360
Range Of Motion
Elbow: 172
(ROM)
Shoulder: 90
Waist: 310

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Canadian Journal on Electrical and Electronics Engineering Vol. 3, No. 6, July 2012
each link (expressing joint i in its previous neighboring joint
i-1)) derived in [11], the corresponding transformation
matrices for each link of the robotic arm have been written.
Based on the compound transformation property, these
individual transformation matrices when multiplied yield the
overall matrix representing the end-effector
end
of the robot in
terms of its base (1).

     
     

 
0

Where

Shoulder
L2
220

Elbow
L3
220

Wrist
L4
155

B. Inverse Kinematic Model

IK model finds more potential applications in practical
robotic systems. IK model computes the joint angles required
to achieve the given position and orientation. Not only in
robotics, IK finds its importance in other fields like for
example 3D games. In contrast to the forward kinematics, IK
does not have a unique solution. The solutions which ensure
collision-free
free operation and minimum joint motion are
considered more optimum.
Analytical approach has been followed to develop IK
model of ED7220C. This approach ensures that for any object
within robotic arm workspace (Section IV), the model
determines correct joint angles. The first four joint angles i.e.
waist (1), shoulder (2), elbow (
3) and tool pitch (4) are
calculated using this approach while tool roll (
( 5) is directly
given by the desired orientation for object manipulation.
Since transformation involves rotation as well as
translation, so the general form of the transformation matrix
from tool to base is given by (2).

DH works with quadruple {i-1, ai-1, di, i} which

represents twist angle, link length, link offset and joint angle
respectively. Following DH convention, an orthonormal
coordinate system has been attached to each link of the
manipulator (Figure 4). TABLE III lists DH parameters for
the robotic arm ED7220C.

!"#$
 

Fig. 4. ED7220C Coordinate assignment.






Joints (i)
1
2
0
-90
0
0
0
L1
1
2 - 90

3
0

4
0

L2

L3

0
3

0
4

5
-90
0
0
5





0




0




0

)
)
)
1

(2)

Where the first 3x3 matrix and (px, py and pz) representing
the rotation and the translation of end-effector
end
w.r.t base of
the robot in an IK problem are known.
The developed analytical IK model after intensive
mathematical computations yields equations (3), (9), (12) and
(13) for the joint angles 1, 3, 2 and 4 respectively. These
equations express the required joint angles
angl in terms of given
coefficients of (2).

TABLE III.
ED 7220C DH PARAMETERS
Symbol

 %
 % (1)
,
*
1

In (1), the 3X3 matrix comprising of first three rows and

first three columns is the rotation while the last column
represents the position (x, y, z) of the end-effector
end
w.r.t. base.

TABLE II.
ED 7220C LINK LENGTHS

Waist
L1
385

A =  S2+ S23+
+  C234

 
 

0

B =    C2 C23 S234

Fig. 3. ED7220C Kinematic model.

Joint
Symbol
Link Length [mm]

      
     
  
0

6
0
0

L4
0

Using the general form of the transformation matrix for

302

  %&2()
) , ) /

(3)

Canadian Journal on Electrical and Electronics Engineering Vol. 3, No. 6, July 2012
0  1   0 
1  

(5)

  %&2(0 , 1 /

(6)

0  41  1 

(8)

Considering another joint configuration [t1 t2 t3 t4] as [90

90 -90 -90], the position and orientation of the end-effector
expressed in the base coordinates, as computed from model as
well as MATLAB Toolbox has been found to be

(1 )  0 )  2 0 /  ()  2  2 1 /  2   2  (7)

22 2

1


0

  %&2(0 , 1 /

0
1

  
0
0

(9)

51 )  0 )  2 0 6(1 2  2 /  ()  2  2 1 /0 2

(1 2  2 /  0  2 

(1 2  2 /  0  2 

  %&2(0 , 1 /

(10)

(12)

Z [mm]

200
Y [mm]

500
0

-200

-500

X [mm]

-400

Figure 7 shows the plot for joint angle configuration [t1 t2 t3

t4] as [0 90 90 0] with the forward transformation as

0
1
0
0

1
0
0
0

65
0
,
165
1

300

Z [mm]

200
100

z
x

ED7220C

-100
-200
500
0
Y [mm]

-500
-300

-200

-100

100

200

300

400

X [mm]

Fig.7. Plot for joint angle configuration [0 90 90 0].

IV. WORKSPACE ANALYSIS

With technological advancements in robotics and rapid
increase in the trend to employ robots in various applications,
the workspace of a robot has also become a primary
performance parameter in addition to its speed, accuracy and
weight. The workspace of a robot, also termed as its work
envelope, actually expresses a robots ability to reach specific
area. Given the information about Range Of Motion (ROM)
of joints of a robot and length of its links, workspace can be
determined. The ROM of ED7220C joints are mentioned in
TABLE I while the link lengths are given in TABLE II.
With these link lengths and ROM information of each joint

0
-200
ED7220C

-600
-800

500
0
-500
100

0
0

1
0

400

155
0
,
825
1

0
X [mm]

400

Fig. 6. Plot for joint angle configuration [90 90 -90 -90].

-100

ED7220C

200

-200

(13)

400

-300

200

-200

800

Y [mm]

400

(11)

Using the command fkine in MATLAB Toolbox for

Robotics, the same result has been obtained. The
corresponding MATLAB plot for this joint configuration is
illustrated in Figure 5.

-400

600

The forward kinematic model has been validated using

Robotics Toolbox for MATLAB. Numerical results together
with visual plot of position and orientation of a robot in
MATLAB environment gives clear insight of the kinematic
behaviour of a robot. Given various angle set as input to the
developed forward kinematics model (1) and MATLAB
toolbox, corresponding results have been compared and
plotted.
Considering joint angle configuration [t1 t2 t3 t4] as [0 0 0 0];
the position and orientation of the end-effector expressed in
the base coordinates, as computed from (1) is

600

800

III. VALIDATION OF FORWARD KINEMATIC MODEL

1
0
0
0

0
220
,
760
1

-400

      

0
1
0
0

0
0
1
0

51 )  0 )  2 0 60 2  ()  2  2 1 /(1 2  2 /

0
0

  
1
0

1
0
0
0

Figure 6 shows MATLAB plot for this joint configuration.

Z [mm]

1

Fig. 5. Plot for joint angle configuration [0 0 0 0].

(4)

200

300

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Canadian Journal on Electrical and Electronics Engineering Vol. 3, No. 6, July 2012
of the robotic arm, the robot workspace has been found
mathematically using equation (1). Figures 8 and 9 illustrate
the robot workspace
ace in XY and XZ coordinates respectively.
As shown in Figure 8, the arm has a manipulation ability
inside a circular radius of 580 mm. ROM constraints in the
body joint restricts the robot functionality in the region shown
as V in the Figure.

outside the work envelope, the algorithm terminates after

prompting user. Otherwise IK model computes the required
joint angles pointing the end-effector
effector as per given position
pos
and orientation. These joint angles are then mapped to lowlow
level encoder ticks. Finally the Kernel based instructions in
the program execute the command by moving the motors as
per mapped encoder ticks. The flow chart of model
implementation is presented
nted in Figure 11.

580 mm

Fig. 8. Workspace in XY.

Fig. 11. IK model implementation.

To implement the developed IK model on the robotic arm,

it has been ensured that the object (a car key with a key-chain)
key
lies within the robotic arm workspace. For this purpose, the
platform on which the object has been placed is raised (in
height z) by placing two blocks as shown in Figure 12. The
task chosen is basically picking an object from one location
and placing it onto another. Both the source and destination
position and
d orientation have been given as an input.
Figure 12a illustrates the arm at its home position (with
all encoder values as zero). Based on the object coordinates
given by the user, the robot moves as per computed joint
angles (by IK model). Figure 12(b-d)
d) shows the motion of the
robot toward the object. After reaching the target location, the
gripper of the robot closes ultimately grasping the object.
Sequence of pick-up
up of the object is shown in Figure 13(a-b).
13(a
The robot then moves (Figure 14a-b)
14a
toward destination
point, whose coordinates have also been taught by the user.
The destination point should also lie inside the operational
workspace of the robot. After reaching that location, the robot
drops the object (Figure 15a-d)
d) and then finds its way back
ba to
the home position (Figure 16a-b).

.
Fig. 9. Workspace in XZ.

The corresponding 3D MATLAB plot is illustrated in

Figure 10.

Fig. 10. 3D Workspace.

V. IMPLEMENTATION OF IK MODEL ON REAL ARM

Write IK model implementation here. The IK model has
been implemented on the real robotic arm manipulator. An
object has been placed at a known position and orientation.
With this known information from a user, the developed
algorithm first checks if the object
bject lies inside the robot
workspace as demonstrated in Section IV. If the object is
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Canadian Journal on Electrical and Electronics Engineering Vol. 3, No. 6, July 2012

(a)

(b)

(a)

(b)

(c)
(d)
Fig. 12. Moving from Home position to the object.

(c)
Fig. 15. Placing the object.

(d)

(a)
Fig. 13. Picking the object.

(a)
Fig. 16. Moving back to Home position.

(b)

(b)

VI. CONCLUSION

(a)
Fig. 14. Moving to destination position.

A widely used 6 DOF robotic arm manipulator, ED7220C

has been kinematically modeled followed by the analysis of
its workspace. Forward kinematic model has been validated
using MATLAB. The results from the derived forward
kinematic model match exactly with that of MATLAB. The
IK model of the robot has also provided correct joint angles to
move the arm gripper to any position and orientation within
its workspace. The IK model has been implemented on the
real robotic platform. Results obtained from the model have
been compared with the actual performance of the robot in
accomplishing a task e.g. pick and place. It has been found
that with the joint angles computed by IK model, the robot
achieves position precision within 0.5cm. This little

(b)

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Canadian Journal on Electrical and Electronics Engineering Vol. 3, No. 6, July 2012
Computational Intelligence, Control and Computer Vision in Robotics
& Automation, pp. 76-82, 2008.
[4] Popovic N., Williams S, Schmitz-Rode T., Rau G., Disselhorst-Klug C.,
Robot-based methodology for a kinematic and kinetic analysis of
unconstrained, but reproducible upper extremity movement, Journal of
Biomechanics, Vol. 42 No. 10, 2009.
[5] Wang Z., Xilun D., Alberto R. and Alessandro G., Mobility analysis of
the typical gait of a radial symmetrical six-legged robot, Mechatronics,
Vol. 21, No. 7, pp. 1133-1146, 2011.
[6] Man C., Fan X., Li C. and Zhao Z., Kinematics analysis based on
screw theory of a humanoid robot, Journal of China University of
Mining & Technology, Vol. 17 No. 1, pp. 4952, 2007.
[7] Cubero S., An inverse kinematics method for controlling all types of
serial-link robot arms, Mechatronics and Machine Vision in Practice,
Springer-Verlag, Berlin, pp. 217-232.
[8] Kuma R., Kalra P and Prakash N., A virtual RV-M1 robot system,
Robotics and Computer-Integrated Manufacturing, Vol. 26 No. 6, pp.
994-1000, 2011.
[9] Raza ul Islam, J. Iqbal, S. Manzoor, A. Khalid and S. Khan, An
autonomous image-guided robotic system simulating industrial
applications, 7th IEEE International Conference on System of Systems
Engineering (SoSE), Genova, Italy, pp. 314-319, 2012.
[10] Tsai L.W., Robot Analysis: The mechanics of serial and parallel
manipulators, John Wiley & Sons, Feb. 1999.
[11] J. J. Craig, Introduction to robotics: Mechanics and control, Prentice
Hall, 2nd edition, pp.84.

deviation is because of many reasons namely, reported

platform precision (0.5mm as mentioned in TABLE I),
mechanical coupling of the joints, non-linearity in mapping
angles to low-level encoder ticks. The strategy presented in
this paper may also be used to model and analyze other 6
DOF robotic arms.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors will like to appreciate and personally thank
Sarah Manzoor, Aayman Khalid and Sana Khan for their
significant contribution in developing kinematic model of the
robotic arm.
REFERENCES
[1]
[2]

[3]

Mark S., Seth H. and Vidyasagar M., "Robot modeling and control",
John Wiley & Sons, 2006.
Clothier K.E. and Shang Y, A geometric approach for robotic arm
kinematics with hardware design, electrical design and
implementation, Journal of Robotics, Article ID 984823, Vol. 2010.
Sahu S., Biswal B. and Subudhi B., A novel method for representing
robot kinematics using quaternion theory, IEEE Conference on

BIOGRAPHIES

Jamshed Iqbal is working as an Assistant Professor and head of Robotics and

Control Research (RCR) group in Electrical Engineering Department of
COMSATS, Islamabad, Pakistan. Prior to joining COMSATS, he was
working as a Researcher in Italian Institute of Technology (IIT), Italy. He
holds PhD in Robotics from IIT, Italy and three Master degrees in various
fields of Engineering from Finland, Sweden and Pakistan. With more than 8
years of multi-disciplinary experience of industry and academia, Dr. Iqbal has
a strong record of reputed publications and is a reviewer of many international
conferences and journals. His research interests include robot analysis and
design of rehabilitation robots and industrial manipulators.
Raza ul Islam is a Master student at Electrical Engineering Department of
COMSATS, Islamabad, Pakistan. He holds Bachelor in Electronics from the
same institute. His research interests include robotic vision and Human Robot
Interaction (HRI).
Hamza Khan is a Doctoral candidate at Department of Advanced Robotics,
Italian Institute of Technology (IIT), Genova, Italy. He holds two Master
degrees in Robotics from Italy and Poland. His interests include dynamic
walking and mechanism design for quadruped robots.

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