Design and Control of a 3D Printed Robotic Arm

Abstract

The paper is dealing with a 3D printed robotic arm, which is capable to use in the education. The RRR type, 4 degrees of freedom robot is designed in the Autodesk Fusion 360 software, the body of each joint is manufactured by the use of Fused Deposition Modelling technology. The system uses micro servo units as actuators, the control unit is an ATmega2560 microcontroller. Inverse kinematics problem of the arm is solved by geometric approach, joint angles to be determined serve the basis of the control. The workspace of the robot can be analysed via a special purpose Excel spreadsheet. The control program is developed under VS Code software. The system has an OLED screen, which can give information about the reachability of the coordinates, and the state of the robotic arm. The points to be reached are contained by the uploaded control program. The system is capable to use as demonstrating purposes, especially for engineering students.