Alejandro RubioWorkcell

Projects

3-DOF Robot Arm: Firmware and Kinematics

A 3-DOF stepper arm with gripper: homing, Denavit-Hartenberg kinematics, trajectories and pick-and-place on an Arduino-compatible board.

Type

Simulation and real hardware

Context

University of Alicante, Robot Modelling coursework

Period

2020-21

Stack

Arduino C++ · Makeblock MegaPi · MATLAB · Robotics Toolbox

Area

[Kinematics & control] [Embedded & sensors]

Team project.

Media

Inventor render of a multi-link arm with a red base on a grey gradient background.
Inventor render

What was built

  • Limit-switch homing for each axis.
  • Forward kinematics from Denavit-Hartenberg matrices.
  • Geometric inverse kinematics and point-to-point moves.
  • Timed trajectories and a pick-and-place task.
  • A MATLAB Robotics Toolbox model and GUI of the arm.

The firmware runs on a Makeblock MegaPi board. It reads text commands from the serial port and drives the steppers and a servo gripper. Each axis homes on a limit switch.

Forward kinematics multiplies three Denavit-Hartenberg matrices, and inverse kinematics uses a geometric solution. Trajectories set speed from step count and time. A pick-and-place task chains two inverse-kinematics targets. A MATLAB model of the same arm, with a small GUI, checks the kinematics.

Facts

ItemValue
Link valuesd = 150 mm, a = 155 mm and 200 mm
Serial protocol115200 baud

No public repository for this project.