Introduction

 

For our final project, we wanted to do something robotics because we thought it would be cool.  Originally, we planned to build a robotic pet dog but it was deemed to be mechanically too hard.  So we undertook a robotic arm project instead.  Since a project on robotic arm was done last year, we wanted to take a different approach.  Our project plan was to be able to train the arm to do something and have it repeat the movement automatically.  The movement was also to be optimized in software so that it tries to use best path possible between two points.

 

 

 

High-level Design

 

Operation mode

 

There are three modes of operation that we provide:

 

*      Normal mode: the arm can be controlled manually to any position desired.

*      Training mode: the arm can also be controlled manually as desired except the movements that you make will be recorded and optimized for playback.  This mode is obtained by a push-pull button.

*      Playback mode: the arm will automatically move from one point to another with the data obtained from the previous training session. If no training was done, the arm will not move.  While the arm is in this mode, change of mode is blocked and prohibited.  

 

Interaction with the arm

 

The manual control of the arm is provided by the control box that came with the arm except that the connections from the control box go through the microcontroller which controls the outputs to a series of switches that turn on/off /switch direction of the arm’s gear motors.  The mode of operation is provided by a push-pull button and a push button.  When the push-pull button is off and the push button is not pressed, the arm is in normal mode.  When the push-pull button is on, the arm is in training mode and when the push button is pressed, the arm is in playback mode.  The arm automatically reverts to normal mode after it has finished executing the trained motion.

 

Sensors input

 

Wrist photosensor

 
We wanted to take a different approach in sensing the robot arm’s environment to last year’s project, so we originally planned to use hall-effect sensors to detect arm’s movement.  These hall-effect sensors seemed ideal in that no mechanical connection between the sensors and the magnet are required, hence it should give pretty high accuracy and robustness.  But, we encountered a lot of problems such as small distance range of detection and difficult to implement a rotational movement detection scheme.  After two weeks of perseverance to no avail we finally gave up and decided to look for something else to use.

We found the potentiometer scheme to be pretty robust in detecting angled

movement from shoulder, elbow and gripper and phototransistor sensors to

be ideal in detecting rotational movement from the base and wrist. 

 

 

Software design

 

We divided our program into several tasks:

 

*      void scan (void)    – This task scans the input from the manual control box and record the buttons and the directions that were pressed.  The operation mode is also determined by this function from the input buttons.

*      void output (void) – This task outputs to the reed relay switches that control the gear motors to make appropriate arm movement.

*      int performConversion(int) – This task converts the input voltage from the selected potentiometer and return the digital value.

*      void record(void) – This task records the motion sensors input while in training mode.  This means recording the initial voltage reading (by calling performConversion)  for gripper, elbow and shoulder sensors and counting pulses detected by the phototransistors for wrist and base.

*      void recordFinal(void) –This task records the final voltage readings for gripper, elbow and shoulder sensors at the point when the mode returns from training mode to normal mode.

*      void play(void) – This task playback the data in the most recent training session.  It blocks access to other mode until the movements have finished executing.

 

The main loop continually calls the scan function at a predefined interval.  It then checks what mode it is in.  If it is in normal mode, it just output to the motor whatever input was scanned in by calling the output function.  If it is in training mode, it also additionally calls the record function to track the movement.  The recordFinal function is also called when it detects a change in mode from training to normal.  Lastly, if it is in replay mode, it playbacks the movement by calling the play function.

 

Hardware design

 

This is a high level block diagram of our hardware.  Click on each block to get the schematic for that block.

For port assignments, see the header comments in our code.

 

 

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Result of design

 

Our goals were to train our robotic arm to pick up an object and move it from A-to-B.  We initially set milestones, so we could know of a weekly basis on how we are making progress towards the final result.  Our second milestone involved working with the sensors since that was a crucial part of the project.  Professor Land suggested we used Hall-effect sensors, which we attempted to use.  This however was not a successful endeavor as it consumed a good part of our 2nd week.  Instead, we used potentiometers.  Prof. Land said that the group from last year had problems mounting them onto their arm.  However, we were successful in mounting them, and they were the more robust part of our sensors.  We also used phototransistors, which were mounted on the wrist and the base.  We used transparencies with black marks to block the light.  At times, this became more of an arts and crafts project, as we had to tweak the wrist sensor strip.

 

 

Usability

 

The project still needs more tweaking before it can be fully functional.  This includes soldering the connections so that the wires don’t hamper the arm’s movement, and tailor the code such that the arm will move to an object position and then end position.

 

 

Speed & Accuracy

 

Speed is not a problem for this project hence we did not pay much attention to it.  Accuracy for the sensors differs between the potentiometers and the phototransistors.  The potentiometers proved to be very accurate while the phototransistors were only as accurate as the width of one flap used to trigger the phototransistors on and off.

 

 

 

Problems encountered

 

 

Failing potentiometers, it works one day, and then it’s dead.  Re-soldering it isn’t a problem, just an annoyance.

A failed Reed relay, we found that one blew out, and we didn’t have a replacement.  This is okay since we could reallocate a reed relay from the shoulder since its motor burned out on Friday, which of course as Jon put it, ’what a bummer!’.

 

 

As of Sunday (or Monday morning) before our demo, the arm movements by itself successfully remember its training.  Simultaneous movements are also okay.  We’re hoping our demo is okay.  We still need to make some adjustments to our code, so we’ll do it 9am, before we have to demo at 1:25pm.  Keep your fingers crossed =P

 

Next time

 

Sign up for a Thursday or Friday lab session.  So for those of you who’re taking 476 in 2002 or beyond, it might be a good idea to be in a later lab section. =)

Although a certain person claims that Monday groups have 4 extra days to start the project, face it, it’s really the last week/days that things really get done and when final testing is done….

Of course, if we had more time to test, yea, that’d be great, but I guess we’re pretty happy with what we accomplished.

 

Listing

 

Materials

 

*      AT90S8535 with 8 ADCs (only 3 were used)

*      5 V reed relays (10)

*      potentiometers as angle sensors (3)

*      phototransistors as rotation sensors (2)

*      10k ohm resistors (2), 5k ohm resistors (4), 1k ohm resistors (4)

*      a push-pull button

*      a push button

*      An OWI 007 robot arm from Jameco

 

Code

 

Download controller.c

 

Schematics

 

Gear Motor diagram

 

The connections to each of the gear motors inside the robot arm looks like the diagram below.  The two switches are implemented by the reed relays which are controlled by the microcontroller.  The software makes sure that at most only one of the switches below for each motor are turned on at a time.

 

 

Reed relay circuit

 

Two reed relays are needed to implement the two switches to control the motor output above:

 

 

When the microcontroller turns on one switch by grounding the line, the other microcontroller turns off the switch by setting the line to Vdd.

 

In this way the gear motor is only connected to the motor’s positive supply or negative supply at one time.

 

 The other side of the motor is connected to both positive and negative supply hence the direction of the motor is reversed by just controlling these two switches.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Control Box

 

The control box contains a series of two-way mechanical switches for each movement.

 

Each switch looks like:

 

The direction of the switch is determined using similar pull-up resistor technique as in scanning a keypad. First, note that the two end-points of the switch, A and B, are shared between all switches and they are originally connected to Vdd and Gnd so that when the switch is pressed, a direction connection from Vdd or Gnd to the middle point, which were originally connected to the motor output, is formed.  With all connections to the microcontroller, we can scan the direction of switch as follows:

 

  1. Set the output pins from the microcontroller to the end points A and B to Vdd and Gnd respectively.
  2. Set the pin connected to midpoint as input and turn on the pull-up resistor and wait for the resistor to charge up.
  3. If a ‘1’ is detected on the mid-point then we know that button B was not pressed.  Otherwise, the direction is B.
  4. Repeat 1 and 2 but swap Vdd and Gnd on A and B.
  5. If a ‘1’ is detected on the mid-point then we know that button A was not pressed.  Otherwise, the direction is A.

 

Photos diagram

 

The phototransistors are used to detect rotational movements.  Two phototransistors are needed to determine the direction of that the movement is rotating.  These are connected to microcontroller as follows:

 

The mechanical flaps are spaced out so that each flap covers both transistors totally and each spacing uncovers both A and B completely.  This is done so that only one of the two transistors A, B can switch state at a time. 

The distance of the rotational movement is determined by the number of pulses that pass through the phototransistors.  The direction is determined by the current state of the two phototransistors and the next state that they are in.  These are summarized as follows:

 

Current State

Next state

Current Direction

A = off, B = off

A =  on, B = off

Right

 

A = off, B = on

Left

A = on, B = on

A = on, B = off

Left

 

A = off, B = on

Right

A = on, B = off

A = off, B = off

Left

 

A = on, B = on

Right

A = off, B = on

A = off, B = off

Right

 

A = on, B = on

Left

 

‘Off’ means covered (transistor off), and ‘on’ means uncovered (transistor on).  Direction is in reference to the diagram above and is the direction of that the mechanical flap is moving.

 

Potentiometer connections

 

The potentiometer connections are Vdd and Gnd to each of the pole while the output is connected to microcontroller ADC.  The knob on the potentiometer determines the angle position for the joint that it is mounted on.

Special thanks

 

*      Professor Land for giving us advices throughout the project

*      TA Jon Winslow for tips and suggestions for mounting the sensors

 

*      Hideomi Nihira for loaning us his digital camera!

 

(Here’s a picture of him)