Introduction- (Sec 1)

In this paper, we aim to present the working of a 3-DOF pick and place robotic arm. The development
of robotic arm is based on several parameters such as number of axes, the degree of freedom,
kinematics, payload and number of joints to name a few. As can be seen from the block diagram, the
arm’s movement is being governed based on the computational results obtained by using forward
and inverse kinematics. The user gives input in terms of the co-ordinates of the object to be placed,
which go as an input to the processing software. The results computed by the software serves as an
input to the microcontroller. The microcontroller decides how the three stepper motors must
function and gives this an input to the motor driver. The motor driver then ensures requisite amount
of current is made available to the motors.

Input Controller Motor Motor

(Processing) Driver

Power
Supply

The effective movement of the arm is being achieved with the help of three stepper motors, one
attached at the base, one at the shoulder joint and the third at the elbow joint. Based on the input
given by the user, the mathematical calculations are performed, and the precise motion of the motors
makes the arm move to efficiently pick and place the object.

The paper is organized as follows. Section II gives an overview of the robotic arm. Section III gives a
detailed description of the functioning of the arm. Experimental procedures and experiments are
described in section IV. Section V concludes the paper.

Robotic Arm- (Sec 2)

The arm described in this paper possesses 3 – DOF (degree of freedom). It is quite similar to a human
arm with respect to number and positioning of joints. If similarity is drawn between the joints of the
robotic arm and the human arm, it can be seen the robotic arm has the following joints: base
(shoulder joint), elbow and wrist. The complete description is organised as the hardware and the
software setup.

2.1 Hardware setup-

The actuators for all these joints are stepper motors. Of the all the three motors used, the shoulder
motor is the most powerful as it bears the load of the entire arm in addition to the load of the object
to be picked and placed. Table 1 lists the different stepper motors used along with their torque
ratings and the angle range for each joint. The gripper is a ….

Joint Current capacity (max) Torque (kg-cm)

Base 2.8 10.0
Shoulder 2.8 10.0
End effector 2.0 4.2

Specifications of the robotic arm are –

 a. Degree of freedom-3
b. Programming mode- Offline
c. Link length-

Specifications of the gripper used are –

a. Weight-
b. Payload-

The frame of the robotic arm is constructed using aluminium links. [Include diagram of arm]

The microcontroller used is ATmega2560. It consists of 54 digital I/O pins (of which 15 provide PWM
output) and 16 are analog input pins.

The microcontroller receives its input from the processing software. The number of inputs to the
microcontroller unit are three, one corresponding to each motor. The total number of outputs from
the MCU are nine, three corresponding to each motor.

The next section is the motor driver. The motor driver used is TB6560 which has a maximum current
capacity of 3 A. This motor driver is selected since it meets the current requirement of the motors
used in the arm. The motor drivers are responsible for ensuring that the requisite amount of current
as demanded by the motors is made available to them.

It consists of three inputs: Enable (EN), Clock (CLK) and direction (DIR). The enable pins are used to
enable or disable a motor. The clock is used to count the no of steps the motor should move to get
the same angle user wanted it to move.

The driver serves an interface between motor and controller as it receives signal from controller and
then send it to the motor in the desired form (voltage & current rating of motor. The driver also
provides the micro-step function, which when altered can control the value of the step angle and can
hence provide for higher precision. The user enters the value of the angle and then the number of
steps is given by (angle entered by user / step angle of motor).

Table 2 lists the value of micro-step and the corresponding step angle.

Micro-step Step angle

1 1.8
2 0.9
4 0.45
8 0.225

The direction input simply governs the direction in which the motor rotates.
To meet the power requirements, a separate power supply section is designed for the arm.

The next section in the hardware setup is the power supply. Fig [x] shows the circuit for the power
supply. As can be seen, the power supply consists of 4 terminals T1, T2, T3 and T4 which are
connected in series with the DC supply. The main switch M, turns ON or OFF the entire supply. Led is
connected in series with power supply to indicate the state of power supply. Resistor is connected in
series with each led to control the flow of current through led.

2.2 Software setup

The Arduino IDE is used to program the microcontroller. The software used for computing forward
and inverse kinematics is processing.

The software takes angles as input in the forward kinematics mode and based on the following
formula the movement of the arm is performed.

r = sqrt (d12 + d22 + 2d1d2cos(elbow))

shoulder = alpha1 + alpha2
alpha1 = cot-1((d1 + d2cos(elbow)) / d2sin(elbow))
alpha2 = shoulder – alpha1
z = r sin(alpha2)
y = r cos(alpha2) sin(base)
x = r cos(alpha2) cos(base)
where,
base, shoulder, elbow are the joint angles
x, y, z are the end-effector co-ordinates
d1 and d2 are the links length

Fig [123] shows the algorithm of forward kinematics.

Similarly, in the inverse kinematics mode the user inputs the co-ordinates of the object as an input.
Based on the mathematical formulae, the software outputs the angles. These go as an input to the
microcontroller unit, which decides how each motor should move. Based on the computation, the
final movement of arm takes place.
r = sqrt (x2 + y2 + z2)
Base = tan-1(y/x)
Elbow = - cos-1 ((R2 - d12 – d2 2) / 2d1d2)
Shoulder = sin-1 (z/r) + tan-1 (d2sin(Elbow) / (d1 + (d2cos(Elbow)))
where,
d1 and d2 are the link lengths
x, y, z are the end-effector’s coordinates
Base, Shoulder, Elbow are the three joint angles

Fig [123] shows the algorithm of inverse kinematics.