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UNIVERSITI T'EKNIKALMALAY'SIA MELAKA

Pick and Place Robotic Arm Controlled By

Computer

Thesis submitted in accordance with the requirements of the

Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka for the
Bachelor of Engineering (Honours) Manufacturing (Robotic and Automation)

MOHAMED NAUFAL BIN OMAR

Faculty of Manufacturing Engineering

April 2007
 ABSTRACT

Robot manipulator is an essential motion subsystem component of robotic system for

positioning, orientating object so that robot can perform useful task. In the field of
robotics, there are five types of robot configurations that are SCARA, articulated,
Cartesian, cylindrical and spherical. In this research, the focus is on 5 DOF articulated
arm since it mimic to human arm. Articulated arm consists of revolute joints that allowed
angular movement between adjacent joint. The arm's rotating base is powered by a single
large-scale servo. Mounted to the base is an elevation joint, or shoulder, that can move
the arm through 180 degrees, from horizontal to vertical on each side. The shoulder uses
two large-scale servos, working together to provide the torque needed to lift the rest of
the arm, as well as any object that it may be grasping. Attached to the shoulder piece is an
elbow that can move through 180 degrees, also powered by a large-scale servo. The wrist
is made up of three standard servos and can move through 180 degrees, as well as
rotating the gripper clockwise and counterclockwise. Attached to the wrist is a three-
fingered gripper that utilizes a unique design built around a single standard servo. The
revolute geometry allows the robot arm to reach any point within a half-sphere, having
the shape of an inverted bowl. The radius of the half-sphere should be the length of the
arm when its shoulder, elbow, and wrist are straightened out. The robot arm is controlled
by a serial servo controller circuit board. The controller circuit board is based on
Microchip's popular programmable integrated circuit (PIC) 16F84A flash programmable
microcontroller. The serial servo controller board will be connected to the serial port on a
PC running the Microsoft Windows operating system. The robot arm control software
that runs on the PC will be written in Visual Basic 6. The PIC 16F84A can also be
programmed to run robot arm sequences independently. The controller will also be
interfaced to a voice recognition circuit.
 CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION

1.0 Introduction

Robot is an integral part in automating the flexible manufacturing system that one
greatly in demand these days. Robots are now more than a machine, as robots have
become the solution of the future as cost labour wages and customers' demand. Even
though the cost of acquiring robotic system is quite expensive but as today's rapid
develooment and a verv high demand in uualilv with I S 0 (International Standard
Organization) standards, human are no longer capable of such demands. Research and
develooment of Suture robots is movinlr at a verv raoid oace due lo the constanllv
imoroving and uograding of the aualitv standards of oroducts.

Robot and automation is emoloved in order to reolace human to oerform those tasks
that are routine. dangerous. dull. and in a hazardous area. In a world of advanced
technololrv todav. automation greatlv increases oroduction caoabilitv. imorove
product aualitv and lower ~roductioncost. It takes iust a few oeoole to program or
monitor the cornouter and c a m out routine maintenance.

1.1 Review of Industrial Robotic Arm Develo~ment

George Devol received the first patents for robotics in 1954. The first company to

F. Engelberger in 1956, and was based on Devol's original patents. Unimation robots

transfer objects from one point to another, less than a dozen feet or so apart. They
used hydraulic actuators and were programmed in joint coordinates, i.e. the angles of
the various joints were stored during a teaching phase and replayed in operation. For
some time Unimation's only competitor was Cincinnati Milacron Inc. of Ohio. This
changed radically in the late 1970s when several big Japanese conglomerates began
producing similar industrial robots. Unimation had obtained patents in the United
States but not in Japan who refused to abide by international patent laws, so their
designs were copied.

In 1969 Victor Scheinman at Stanford University invented the Stanford arm, an all-
electric, 6-axis articulated robot designed to permit an arm solution. This allowed the
robot to accurately follow arbitrary paths in space and widened the potential use of the
robot to more sophisticated applications such as assembly and arc welding.
Scheinrnan then designed a second arm for the MIT A1 Lab. called the "MIT arm."
Sheinman sold his designs to Unimation who further develooed it with suooort from
General Motors and later sold it as the Proerammable Universal Machine for
Assemblv (PUMA). In 1973 KUKA Robotics built its first industrial robot, known
as FAMULUS, this is the first articulated industrial robot to have six
electromechanically driven axes.

Interest in industrial robotics swelled in the late 1970s and many companies entered
the field, including large firms like General Electric, and General Motors (which
formed ioint venture FANUC Robotics with FANUC LTD of Jaoan). US start-uos
included Automatix and Adept Technology, Inc. At the height of the robot boom in
i984. Unimarion was acauired bv Westinghouse Electric Cornoration for 107 million
US dollars. Westinghouse sold Unimation to StSiubli Faverges SCA of France in 1988.
Staubli was still making articulated robots for general industrial and clean room
applications as of 2004 and even bought the robotic division of Bosch in late 2004.

Eventuallv the mvooic vision of American industrv was suoerseded bv the financial
resources and strong domestic market enjoyed by the Japanese manufacturers. Onlv a
few non-Japanese companies managed to survive in inis maritel. inciuciinu Acie~;
Technology, StBubli-Unimation, the Swedish-Swiss comoanv nBB ~ n a c nBrown-
-
Roveri). the Austrian ma!?t!f~;:c:i~~t~I::.
comoanv KUKA Roboncs
1.2 Project Background

The robot arm for this final project is the revolute type that closely resembles the
human arm.The arm's rotating base is powered by a single large-scale servo that
rotates the rest of the arm in a half-circle (180 degree) arc. Mounted to the base is an
elevation joint, or shoulder, that can move the arm through 180 degrees, from
horizontal to vertical on each side. The shoulder uses two large-scale servos, working
together to provide the torque needed to lift the rest of the arm, as well as any object
that it may be grasping. Attached to the shoulder piece is an elbow that can move
through 180 degrees, also powered by a large-scale servo. The wrist is made up of
three standard servos and can move through 180 degrees, from a straight position to
doubled back, as well as rotating the gripper clockwise and counterclockwise.
Attached to the wrist is a three-fingered gripper that utilizes a unique design built
around a single standard servo. The revolute geometry allows the robot arm to reach
any point within a half-sphere, having the shape of an inverted bowl. The radius of the
half-sphere should be the length of the arm when its shoulder, elbow, and wrist are
straightened out.

The robot arm is controlled by a serial servo controller circuit board. The controller
circuit board is based on Microchip's popular programmable integrated circuit (PIC)
16F84A flash programmable microcontroller, and it receives servo position
commands from any device using a 2400-baud serial connection. This means that the
arm can be used with any of the popular microcontroller systems available on the
market or with a PC. The serial servo controller board will be connected to the serial
port on a PC running the Microsoft Windows operating system. The robot arm control
software that runs on the PC will be written in Visual Basic 6.0. The PIC 16F84A can
also be programmed to run robot arm sequences independently.
1.3 Problem Statement

The main intention of this project is to design and implemented a 5 DOF

revolute type robot arm that is capable to grasp and carry objects. Several problems
on this project have been defined to simplifl the development process. The problems
are:

1.3.1 Material Selection and Considerations

The most suitable material to fabricate the structure of the arm has to be light
and strong. Otherwise, the servo motor will not be able to pull up the arm and to
perform the desired turning degree. Among the materials that can be considered to
fabricate the structure are aluminum, perspex, plastic polymer and carbon fiber. In
choosing the fabrication materials, the aspect of availability of the materials, the
overall cost and the flexibility to be shaped, should also be taken into consideration.
Thus among the four materials considered, the aluminum is the most ideal material to
be chosen as fabrication material.

1.3.2 Design The Mechanism and Fabrication of the Robot Arm

The mechanical structure of shoulder, elbow and wrist form the main part of
the robot arm.The main problem in this part is on how to attach the servo motor onto
the section or joint to achieve the desired turning degree level. Besides, the way on
how to combine the arm component should also be considered in order to achieve the
intended degree of freedom. Autodesk Inventor and Autodesk AutoCAD are used to
draw and to simulate the mechanical design of the robot arm. The accuracy of the
mechanical design dimensions is consider as part of the main problem since minor
error in the dimension will cause major problem in the fabrication of the arm
structure.
1.3.3 Electronic Circuit Design and Software Programming

The electronic part is used to control the movement of the arm component. For
this purpose, the PIC microchip or microcontroller is used. The PIC needs to have its
own electronic circuit and needs to be programmed to enable it to control the arm
movement and interface with the software to control the arm. Problem occurs in order
to program the Visual Basic in PC to interface or communicate with the circuit
through PIC.

1.4 Objectives

The main objective in completing the project is to achieve the standards that have
been set. The objectives are as follows:

1.4.1 Design and Fabrication the 5 DOF Robot Arm

The main objective of this project is to design the 5 DOF revolute robotic arms that
able to carry out certain task. The revolute robotic arm is able to move similar to
human arm. The arm is designed so it is able to rotate clockwise and counter
clockwise (180 degrees) and able to pick and place objects. The arm needs to be as
light as possible in order to maximize payload. The material for the arm structure also
needs to be strong and rigid. One possible material is the aluminum.

1.4.2 Design and Fabrication Serial Servo Controller Circuit Board

The second main objective is to design and fabricate the serial servo controller circuit
board that will be used to control the robot arm servo via a serial connection to a
Personal Computer (PC). The most important components that are used in the
controller are the PIC 16F84 microcontroller. The circuit board will be connected to
the serial port of a PC via DB9 serial connector.
1.4.3 Robot Software and Interfacing with the Robot Arm

The next main objective is to design robot interface application using Microsoft's
Visual Basic 6.0 to control the servo controller circuit board to run the robot arm. The
Visual Basic program sent servo position to the PIC on the controller circuit.
 CHAPTER 2
LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Components of a Robot Manipulator

A robot manipulator system often consists of links, joints, actuators, and controllers
[Robotics Second Edition, Man Zhihong, 20041.

2.1.1 Joints

The rotary joints and the sliding of prismatic joints allow the links to move in the
robot work space. In robot system, the number of degrees-of-fieedom is determined
by the number of independentjoint variables [Man Zhihong, 20041. "CRS Robotics",
the automation laboratory robot has 3 DOF. It's inexpensive, easy to program and
limited load capacity [Handbook of Industrial Robotics, Shimon Y.Nof, 19991.
"IVAX SCARA" robotic arm produced by FEEDBACK has 4 DOF, it is primarily
used in industrial areas such as pick & place and automated palletizing [Darryl Wai,
20041. "Teleoperate Anthropomorphic Robotic Arms" has 5 DOF and the concept is
similar to the industrial robotic arm in the factory. It is suitable for pick and place
object with limited load capacity [Karl Williams, 20041. Through all the research that
I've done I have chose 5 DOF for my robotic arm because 5 DOF has the similar
movement and features like human arm. But the more number of DOF the more
complex the robotic arm.
2.1.2 Actuators

Actuators are devices that cause rotary joints to rotate or drive prismatic joints to slide
along their motion axes. The most used robot drivers are stepper motor and DC servo
motor. The stepper motor movements can be very precise but stepper motor is open
loop type that is the control computer computes the number of pulses required for the
desired movement and dispatches the command to the robot without checking
whether the robot actually completes the motion commanded [Robots and
Manufacturing Automation, C.Ray Asfah1,1992]. "IR Transreceiver Robotic Arm"
used 4 stepper motor to control the direction and generate a Pulse Width Modulation
[Neremal Singh, UNN, 20041. "Robotic Arm Control System" used 4 unit of DC
motor to drive each joint of the robotic arm used for speed and position control
application [Mohd. Badrul bin Abd. Rahrnan, UNN, 20041. The second type of robot
actuator is dc servo. These robots invariably incorporate feedback loops from the
driven components back to the driver. Thus the control system continuously monitors
the positions of the robot components, compares these positions with the position
desired by the controller and check any differences or error conditions [C.Ray Asfahl,
19851. "Teleoperate Anthropomorphic Robotic Arm" used 8 servo motors overall to
control the arm. That is 2 large scale servos to control shoulder to provide torque
needed to lift the rest of the arm as well as any object that it may be grasping, 1 large
scale servo to control the rotating base and another one large scale servo to control
elbow. While 3 standard servos used to control the wrist and one more standard servo
to control the gripper [Karl Williams, 20041. As a conclusion on the actuators, I'm
going to use servo motor as my robotic arm driver since servo motor is a continuous
device, thereby making possible a smoother and continuously controllable movement.

2.1.3 Controllers

Controllers are the most important components in a robot system. If a robot has n
joints, n controllers are needed to control all joint actuators. Robot controllers used to
solve the problem how robot actuators are driven to achieve a desired performance. A
robot control system is actually the integration of electronic hardware and software.
 The task of software is to use some control algorithms to compute the control signals
while the control hardware can then provide the control signals to the actuators [Man
Zhihong, 20041. "IR Transreceiver Robotic Arm" applied stepper motor controller to
control the direction and generate a PWM. The direction of and the PWM output is
then sent to the stepper motor driver. In this controller design, the programmable
PIC16F84 is use to generate the desired signals. UCN5804 IC is used to drive the
stepper motors. By incorporating stepper motor controller into the design, the PIC can
control multiple stepper motor [Neremal Singh, UNN, 20041. "Teleoperate
Anthropomorphic Robotic Arm" used serial servo controller to control robot arm via
serial connection to a PC or directly from the onboard PIC 16F84 microcontroller.
The PIC is programmed to listen for any incoming serial communication from the
host computer then set the servos to the positions received and update the servos with
their positional information so that the servos will hold their positions [Karl Williams,
20041. I'm going to choose servo motor controller for my robotic arm since I'll use
servo motor to drive my robotic arm and the advantage of using servo motor already
explain under actuators topic above.

2.2 Robot Geometry

In the field of robotics, there are five types of commonly used robot arm
configurations, each named according to the combination of shoulder, elbow and
, wrist joints. Each of the commonly used types employs simple revolute or prismatic
joints. The five types are the rectangular coordinate (this includes both floor and
gantry mounts), spherical coordinate (polar), cylindrical coordinate, revolute
coordinate and the Self Compliance Automatic Robot Assembly (SCARA).
Cartesian robots have three prismatic joints, whose axes are coincident with a
Cartesian coordinate system. "Gantry robots (GCA Corporation)" are widely used for
handling tasks such as palletizing, warehousing, and order picking or special
machining task such as water jet or laser cutting where robot motions cover large
surfaces [Shimon Y. Nof, 19991. A cylindrical robot's arm forms a cylindrical
coordinate. This kind of robotic arm preferably used for palletizing, loading, and
unloading of machines. "Optimal Design for Laparoscopic Positioning Stands"
applied spherical configuration because it is use for endoscopic surgery that is
perform on the abdomen. The abdominal wall as a kinematic constraint acts as a
pivoting point that the surgeon has to move tools in a spherical configuration. [Ali
Faraz, Shahram Payandeh]. A S C A M robotic arm allows for 4 degrees of freedom.
Freedom in the X-Y plane via two parallel, rotational joints; freedom in the Z plane
via one vertical, linear joint, and the freedom to rotate the end effectors about the Z
axis. One example of the S C A M configuration is "IVAX SCARA" robotic arm
manufactured by FEEDBACK is specifically use for educational use [Darryl Wai,
20011. Revolute configuration actually work like a human arm the base rotate in a
way similar to a twisting human torso. The shoulder and elbow on most articulating
robot pivot on one axis each, perpendicular on the axis of the arm and parallel to the
plane upon which the based mounted. The wrist assembly on articulating robots
almost always has pitch but may or may not have yaw and roll [C. Ray Asfahl].
Among the five types of the configurations, I am going to choose revolute
configuration since this type of configuration is the most suitable and similar to the
human arm.

2.3 Robot Programming

A robotic software system at the system controller level can be broadly divided into
three layers. The lower-most layer of this system is the hardware-interface layer. The
purpose of this layer is to interface with the servo control software, peripheral
devices, and communication buses. The top-most layer of a robotic software system is
the robotic programming language. This layer provides the man-machine interface for
human intervention. In this layer, programs written in the robot programming
language are converted into appropriate commands for the middle layer. These
commands are then translated into actuator position, velocity and torque commands
by the middle layer that is then sent to the lowest layer [Chetan Kapoor, Delbert
Tesar]. "Industrial Robotic A r m uses BASIC Stamp I1 developed by Parallax, Inc. It
is easily to be programmed using a form of the BASIC programming language. The
PBASIC code is stored inside a serial EEPROM on-board the BASIC Stamp.
PBASIC is a version of the BASIC programming language, created by Parallax and
designed specifically to work with their STAMP micro controller modules [Kim Yi
Ching, Deakin University, 20051. "Teleoperate Anthropomorphic Robotic Arm" used
PIC 16F84A as the processor for the robot arm controller circuit. It uses PicBasic Pro
Compiler to program the programming language. The PicBasic Pro Compiler is
"BASIC Stamp I1 like," and has most of the libraries and fimctions of both BASIC
Stamp I and 11. Because it is a true compiler, programs execute much faster, and may
be longer then their stamp equivalents. One advantage of PicBasic Pro Compiler is
that it uses a real IF..THEN..ELSE..ENDIF, instead of the IF..THEN(GOTO) of the
Stamps [Karl Williams, 20041. Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) had designed
and implemented a 68HC11 based digital system that controls a robotic arm by using
the "Nintendo Power Glove" as the input device. But due to lack of output ports on
the 68HC 11, it only able to control 3 motors (3 DOF). Specs for the 68HC 11 show
that it have 11 available output ports. However, PDO and PDl are "married" to the
SPI interface (TxD, RxD) and PA3 was also unusable [Daniel Tan, Richard Yang,
20021. From the research that I've made and study about the pro and cons on the
robotic programming, I have decided to use to Pic Basic Pro to program the PIC.
Beside that, Pic Basic Pro is more advanced and more user friendly compare to Pbasic
and 68HC11.
 CHAPTER 3
METHODOLOGY

3.1 Project Planning

The progress of the developing the project will be smooth and easier with well
defined and proper planning and management. When the proposal submitted, the
planning of the project is started in progress. Basically, crucial consideration of time
management, resources and fact-finding procedures is carried out and considered at
the initial stage when the project has been approved. Planning is important as only
sufficient time and resources are provided. The major considerations of the planning
of the planning of the project are as below:

i. Knowing the period of time provided for completing the project

ii. Fact-finding and research procedure.
iii. Defining the amount of resources that are available
iv. Determining the materials and objects to be used.
v. Identifying the level and standard of Manufacturing Defects Analyzer
System.

Before beginning the construction of the project, the above planning must be made.
However, the different planning and progress need to be re-figuring out when the
project come to mid-term. The considerations are:

i. Problem solving and troubleshooting procedure.

ii. Improvement making steps and error finding.
...
111. Maintenance process and project testing.
iv. Project standard confinement (after modification)
Immediate actions need to be taken and project planning has to be followed up on
time when problems are encounter. For instance, when the initial planning for
equipment which has searched to be measured but cannot obtained, the new planning
need to takes place immediately to acquire replaced equipment. Proper planning and
good management are needed for project to accomplish on time.

3.2 Gantt Chart

Gantt chart (refer to Appendices) has been organized and scheduled to carry out for
the entire project process activity. The project is divided into three sections mainly,
electronics, mechanical and software. These sections are divided into single detail
area which is research, software programming, circuit simulation and etc. In order to
carry out the task sequence and accomplished the project on time, duration and time
frame has been arranged for every area.

Research takes a lot of time because it needs to define the proper and correct
components part. Then, once the concept and ideas have been generated, the project
can be carried out to further develop. Since implementation and interfering, single
parts may encounter problem so troubleshooting is required and time consuming.
When completed the project, technical report has been compiled and the project is
accomplished.

The project activities can be carried out systematically and the project can achieve in
high quality and standard system throughout the Gantt chart.

3.3 Project Cost Planning

In order to tracks project overall costs, the project costing is essential management.
Costs can be allocated on it once a project has been allocated. The project must be
reviewed from material commitments, direct labor, direct materials, and direct
purchases details. There is no practical limit to the number of detail entries per project
 due to unique independent file structures. Detailed descriptive information can be
entered for each project, as well as proposed estimate amounts. With all the item
needed for the project, then survey the market price and the item information is obtain
as many as possible and tried to find the backup item in case the item has been
obsolete. Budget control is important to prevent expenses so for certain equipments or
tools, we can borrow from lab to reduce more cost. The project would accomplish as
cost saving, reliability and quality product with well-cost control.

The project is a combination of hardware and software. So these two particular

sections would consume more budgets to construct the hardware. Therefore the
budget control and cost planning must takes place to these two sections. Normally the
hardware sections would be separated into 5 areas, which is illustrating as below:-

1. Servo Motor
2. Servo Controller Circuit
3. d D M IC Programmer 1 Burner
4. Aluminum ( Body structure)
5. Miscellaneous

By using Visual Basic 6.0 does not involve on any expenses for the software section.
The project manages to obtain and utilize the desire sources of tools throughout the
cost planning. Other than this, well proper control will prevent any over expenses.
, Finally the project would accomplish within the budget and provided high quality and
standard system for industrial application.

3.4 Procedures

The procedure has been planned properly in the early stage of this project to avoid
redundant steps and to optimize the time allocated. The whole design and
implementation procedures are subdivided into two parts, each for first and second
semester. The first semester is focusing on the research, designing, selections of
materials, selection of the motors and bearings for the robotic arm, while the second
semester will be focusing to the construction of the mechanical parts and electrical
parts.

Semester I

Identifying requirements

Literature Review

Designing the project

No

c >
Selection of Mechanical and Electrical Components
(Materials, motors, bearings, electrical components)
L 1

f 3
Selection of Software for Interfacing
(Human Interface and Controller)
L /

Semester I1

Figure 3.1 : Project Methodology for Semester I

 Semester I1

1 v 1
Constructing Servo Fabricating Robot Creating Robot
Controller Circuit Ann Interface Software

Programming Programming

L -
7 1

No

Combining & Final Touch-Up

Project Completion

Figure 3.2: Project Methodology for Semester I1

3.4.1 Identifying Requirements

The need to identify all the design requirements is to ensure the rest of the design
process runs smoothly. In the case of the robot arm, the very important design
requirements are the kinematics structure, load capacity, degree of freedom and
structure of joint driving system.
 3.4.2 Project Overview

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Input Controller Output

Figure 3.3: Robotic Arm Architecture

. 3.4.3 Literature Review (Research)

Literature review is where all the ideas of the robot structure are generated. Literature
review is done through internet, journal, books, thesis and previous project (FYP). All
possible ideas are gathered and evaluated to choose the best design for fabricating
purposes. The purpose of the literature review is to study, compare and analyze other
people's method based on their past studies related to the robotic arm. The method
can be applied as guidance to my project.
3.4.4 Design the Robotic Arm

The best idea is put into drawing. The drawing is important for documentation
purposes and to simplifjl the fabrication. The design will be modified from time to
time for improvement purposes.

3.4.5 Design Overview

Wrist Rotation Servo #6

Elbow Servo #3

Shoulder Servo #2
Shoulder Servo # 1

Base Servo #O

Figure 3.4: 2-D Robotic Arm Design

Figure 3.5: 3-D Robotic Arm Design
3.4.6 Design Evaluation

The evaluation stage is to review the design whether it has met the requirement or not.
If the design has not meet the requirement especially in terms of stability, then the
redesign step is done and the structure will be modified. If necessary, the redesigning
step will also involve literature review until the requirement is fulfilled. When the
requirements have been fulfilled, the mechanical part is completed.

3.4.7 Selection of Mechanical Components

The parts needed to build the mechanical portion of the robot arm are listed in Table
3.1.

Table 3.1 : Parts List for the Robot Arm Mechanical Construction
3.4.8 Serial Servo Controller Circuit Board Components

The serial servo controller board will be used to control the robot arm via a serial
connection to a PC or directly from the onboard PIC 16F84 microcontroller. Table 3.2
lists all of the parts necessary to create the serial servo controller board.

Table 3.2: Parts Lists for the Serial Servo Controller Board.
3.4.9 Robot Interfacing and Software Selection

The serial servo interface software will be built using Microsoft's Visual Basic 6. The
ability to design the serial interface application that runs on any personal computer
(PC) has never been easier using Visual Basic 6. The serial servo control software
will be controlling eight servos with an easy-to-use graphics interface. Moving the
sliders on the graphics interface controls each of the eight servos. When the robot arm
is positioned where desired, the eight servos setting can be saved in a control
sequence with a click of a button. When all the sequence of the arm positions are
recorded, the sequence of stored positions can be played back at varying movement
speeds.

3.4.10 Robot Arm Fabrication

Laser cutting machine are used in the fabrication of the robot arm structure. The
AutoCAD drawing of the robot arm structure are converted into machine language
code and downloaded into the laser cutting machine. The machine will do the cutting
process according to the drawing. The machine is very precise so the drawings has to
be accurate.

3.4.11 Constructing Servo Controller Circuit

After the robot arm structures are fabricated, the controller circuit can be constructed.
The circuit will be first constructed and troubleshoot on the bread board before it is
finalized on the printed circuit board (PCB) using Eagle software.
 CHAPTER 4
DESIGN AND FABRICATION

4.1 Mechanical Design and Construction

The mechanical construction in this project is to build and assemble the robotic arm
body. The robotic arm is constructed using aluminum such as 1.5mm thick flat
aluminum stock (used for gripper base, shoulder, elbow, wrist, base), 112 x 118 inch
aluminum stock (used for gripper), 314 x 314 inch angle aluminum (used for shoulder
mounting) and 112 x 112 inch angle aluminum (used for gripper).

4.1.1 Rotating Base Design and Fabrication

The rotating base, shoulder and elbow of the robot arm are all powered by HITEC
HS-805BB large scale servos. These servos are ideal for use in the arm joints that
. need to be able to lift a lot of weight.

The box base is 8 inches wide x 8 inches in length x 4 inches in height and it is
fabricated by using the 1.5 rnm thick flat aluminum as well as the lid of the box. The
lid makes room to recess the top of the servo so that the base of the servo can be
mounted flush to the lid.

The 6 x 6 inch rotating "lazy Susan" bearing is use and located at the center of the lid.
This bearing will evenly distribute the weight of the robot arm across the base so that
it can be easily turned by the base rotation servo. The base with the lid mounted in
place is illustrated in the figure 4.1.
 Figure 4.1 : Completed servo, bearing, and lid attached to the Box Base

The Rotating Base piece A with the dimension of 8 inches x 8 inches is fabricated
using the 1/16 inch thick aluminum. The Rotating Base Piece A is illustrated in the
figure 4.2.

Figure 4.2: Actual rotating base

314 inch x 314 inch angle aluminum is used to fabricate the 8 inches length mounting
bracket (piece B and piece C) as shown in figure 4.3. These two pieces of mounting
bracket are used to attach to the Rotating Base piece A as shown in figure 4.4.