Six degrees of freedom robotic testbed for control systems laboratory

Abstract

A 6-DoF robotic testbed has been proposed, designed and developed for university students to learn the concepts of control systems theory in robotics. Testbed is comprised of two parts namely; 6-DoF platform and ball-plate balancing payload. Robotic maneuvers in platform are generated through rotary Stewart-Gough mechanism using inverse kinematic algorithm. Ball-plate balancing payload is fixed on top of platform. This paper presents a comparison among generic testbeds, available at standard control system laboratories. Design of robotic platform along with payload has been detailed and tested with software simulations in MATLAB Simulink. This work explains complete electrical, mechanical and software design along with development, testing and results.