CONTROL OF ROBOTIC ARM USING DATA GLOVE

K. Vigneshwarar, PG scholar, k.vigneshwarar@gmail.com(7708777377), have been kinds of sensing technology realized and applied to the Sethu Institute of Technology, Virdhunagar,. Tamilnadu, India. J. Selvakumar, PG scholar, Kalasalingam University, Srivilliputhur. Guided by: Prof. Dr .R. Sukumar , HOD of C&C, Sethu Institute of Technology. development of a data glove. Most of them are subject to provide high accuracy, high reliability, and high capability in measuring the degree of freedom (DOF) of human hands. They are mostly built with flex sensors attached on the finger joint positions of the hand. When the fingers are bent, the sensors are also flexed and the generated outputs are measured. Then, the bending angles of the fingers are calculated. When users wear the data gloves, the stretching and bending of the finger joints very often occur. It leads to a reduction in the lifetime of the sensors and the accuracy of measurement. According to the outputs of sensors, the data gloves can be grouped into two classes: one produces linear outputs, and another produces nonlinear outputs. Either linear or nonlinear data gloves should be calibrated before they are activated in the applications. The calibration process of nonlinear data gloves is not so easy owing to the lack of output references of nonlinear sensors. The following depicts the most commonly used sensors for hand tracking applied to the development of glove based input devices. In recent years, sensory data gloves have been extensively used along with the popularization of virtual reality(VR) applications. The data glove is a multisensory device that generates a large amount of data and is more complex than other input devices. However, most researchers still adopt the data glove because its natural interfacing characteristic with the human being is the way to improve system
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Abstract- Data glove or cyber glove is an input device for humancomputer interaction. It is worn like a glove that uses various sensor technologies to capture physical data such as bending of fingers. In this project, the data glove is employed to control the arm of a robot, which can be used in many applications. These applications include the control of arm of a crane machine for heavy weight lifting, surgery, medical electronics and in some of the chemical industrial applications also. In this project, a prototype of the arm of a crane machine and a data glove is developed. We use the data glove to control the arm. Using this one can easily and more accurately do any operation. This avoids the stress and strain taken by the machine operator. Index terms- Data glove, cyber glove, wired glove, man-machine interface, robotic arm, power glove. 1. INTRODUCTION Associated with the available input devices for VR, hand tracking technology is the most popular one. Such glove-based input devices let VR users apply their manual dexterity to the VR activities. Hand-tracking gloves currently marketed include: Sayre Glove, MIT LED Glove, Digital Data-Entry Glove, Data- Glove, Dexterous Hand Master, Power Glove, Cyber Glove, VPL Glove, and Space Glove. Now a day, several

manipulations that are applicable in many specific fields, particularly in immersive VR systems. At present, the data glove has been increasingly employed in the areas of tele operations and robotic control, surgery training of medical applications, entertainment sports of VR systems, industrial manufacturing of CAD/CAM applications , and so on. 1) Acoustic tracking sensor: This kind of sensor uses high frequency audio signals to track the movements of the fingers. Such sensors may suffer from acoustic reflections if they are surrounded with hard walls or other acoustically reflective surfaces. 2) Optical tracking sensor: This sensor generally uses an LED or infrared signal as the source which is conducted toward a transmission media like flexible tubes or fiber optics. Then, a photocell sensor is placed at the other end of the media to measure the intensity of the signal. 3) Magnetic tracking sensor: It uses a source element radiating a magnetic field and a small sensor that reports its position and orientation with respect to the source. The magnetic field may be intruded by metallic objects in the environment, which decrease the accuracy of measurement. 4) Resistance tracking sensor: This sensor uses a variable resistance material whose resistivity is varied according to the bending degree of the sensor. In order to achieve high capability in measuring the DOF of a hand, many sensors should be attached to the data glove, each of which is usually installed on the finger joint position. It is not practical for widespread applications, because too many sensors greatly increase the complexity of a data glove system and reduce its portability. Low-cost data gloves that contain a few sensors are available today on the market.
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2. SYSTEM MODEL Data glove or cyber glove is an input device for humancomputer interaction. It is worn like a glove that uses various sensor technologies to capture physical data such as bending of fingers. In this project, the data glove is employed to control the arm of a robot, which can be used in many applications. We use the data glove to control the arm. Using this one can easily and more accurately do any operation. This avoids the stress and strain taken by the machine operator. The schematic is as shown below in figure no.1. There are three different used to perform various actions. They are the control unit, the input unit and the output unit. The control unit is the microcontroller. In this paper, we have used AT89C52 controller. The input unit get its input from the data glove. The output unit is nothing but the synchronous motor. The motor is drive by motor driver, here we use a H bridge to facilitate the motor driving action.

Figure 1. System model

3. THE DATA GLOVE

Three analog to digital conversion units are placed on the thumb finger, elbow joint and near the under arm. Sensors play a critical role in the development of robotic arms and end-effectors. In the human anatomy, the skin provides sensorial information to the brain via a variety of nerve endings that react to physical stimulations such as changes in temperature and pressure. This sensorial information can be broadly classified into three major categories: proprioception, haptic perception and exteroception. Proprioception provides feedback on the position of body parts, such as the angular position of the arms elbow and wrist. Haptic perception enables the recognition of objects via the sense of touch, while exteroception allows the perception of changes in physical variables in reaction to external stimuli. In robotic applications, there exists no single sensor with sensing capabilities comparable to the human skin. In most applications, a dedicated sensor must be integrated in the system in order to measure each and every desired variable. 1) Proprioception Proprioception, such as joints position measurements, is often achieved using encoders technology for robot arms and end-effectors. These can be either absolute or incremental and can measure linear position, as well as angular position of the joints. Linear and angular velocity can be extracted from encoders data by differentiating the position measurements with respect to time. Resistive, capacitive, optical and magnetic encoders have been studied for this purpose with each principle possessing distinctive properties [18]. For end-effector applications however, a unique challenge arises with respect to the integration of encoders on the joints. This is due to the tightness of the available space, especially in the fingers. Thus in this case,
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miniature encoders fabricated using MEMSCMOS technology are desirable with sensor footprint of less than 5 x 5 mm2 2) Haptic Perception Haptic perception is achieved using tactile and force sensors. This perception is essential for handling objects, providing feedback on the amount of force or grip applied on the objects. In the most simplistic form, a tactile sensor measures the pressure exhibited by an object on a membrane which deflects proportionally to the applied pressure or force. Many techniques exist to convert the deflection of the membrane into an electrical signal. These are often implemented using piezoelectric or piezoresistive materials such as Zinc Oxide or Lead Zirconate Titanate (PZT). Membrane deflection also affects the capacitance between the substrate and the membrane. Thus, another method of implementing tactile sensors is through capacitance measurement [7]. These transduction principles of operation are illustrated conceptually in Figure 2.

Figure 2. Principle of transduction

In general, detection of normal loads as well as shear loads is desirable in robotic end effector applications. Normal load measurements provide information on the griping force exerted on the object, while shear load measurements can detect whether

or not the object is slipping during handling maneuvers. Capacitive tactile sensors are most sensitive to normal loads, as their mode of operation requires the deflection of a membrane. Conversely, piezoelectric and piezo resistive materials can be employed to detect normal loads as well as shear loads generated by the surface traction between the object and the sensor face during slippage [10] . These two components of the applied load can be equally detected using other technologies such as strain gages and optical devices. Load measurements through strain gages integrated in a Wheatstone bridge is a well established procedure, and thus is more cost effective in comparison to piezoelectricity and piezo resistivity [12]. Optical measurements on the other hand can provide significant accuracy in the readings [16]. However this technology requires the implementation of a camera in the structure of the sensor and the incorporation of image processing techniques. A single tactile sensor is unable to detect the haptic perception of all fingers of a robotic end effector. In reality, arrays of individual sensors, referred to as tactels, are incorporated together in a distributed structure constituting the tactile sensor. Tactels can be thought of as image pixels, each being sensitive to external loads. Similar to digital imaging, the resolution of a distributed tactile sensor defines the number of tactels on a given surface of the sensor, which consequently dictates the overall sensitivity of the sensor. 3) Exteroception Exteroception on robotic arms and endeffectors is implemented using dedicated sensors.Most commonly; parameters such as temperature and humidity are relevant to robotic applications. These can often be sensed by incorporating appropriate sensors in the structure of the hand, most notably in
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the fingers. The integration of exteroceptive sensors within the structure of tactile sensors is a common practice gaining more momentum in the field. In some cases, the same physics that govern an exteroceptive parameter also govern a different haptic parameter. For instance, a capacitive sensor with top electrodes in a comb-like structure can detect the proximity of an object to the fingers (exteroceptive), as well as the collision of the object with the fingers (haptic). This is achieved by monitoring the fringe capacitance of two adjacent electrodes as a function of the changes in the dielectric constant influenced by the proximity of the object to the electrodes [14]. The principle of operation is shown in Figure 2. Other techniques, such as tactile and thermal feedback provided by a single sensor, have also been successfully demonstrated [19]

Figure 3. A dual proximity-tactile sensor for exteroceptive and haptic feedback. [a] Proximity mode. [b] Contact haptic mode

In this paper, we have proposed the design of data glove using only three sensors. The sensing technology used here is exteroception technology. Potentiometers can be used an candidate for exteroception technology.It uses the principle of variable resistance to perform the conversion of analog movement to digital signal. The analog movement is nothing but the movement of fingers, elbow joint and movement supported by underarm.

Employing this potentiometer, results in cost reduction unlike using costly sensors. We have calibrated the data glove so as to avoid simultaneous conflictions that results due to simultaneous movement of different joins along the hand. 4. THE CARTESIAN ROBOT We have prototype the arm of a crane machine using a linear robot. A Cartesian coordinate robot (also called linear robot) is an industrial robot whose three principal axes of control are linear (i.e. they move in a straight line rather than rotate) and are at right angles to each other. Among other advantages, this mechanical arrangement simplifies the Robot control arm solution. Cartesian coordinate robots with the horizontal member supported at both ends are sometimes called Gantry robots. They are often quite large. A popular application for this type of robot is a computer numerical control machine (CNC machine). The simplest application is used in milling and drawing machines where a pen or router translates across an x-y plane while a tool is raised and lowered onto a surface to create a precise design. A linear robot or Cartesian robot is a simple robot that uses only three simple Cartesian co-ordinates namely x, y and z units for its movement. In this paper, we have used synchronous motors for facilitating the motor action.

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