DESIGN OF WIRELESS INDUSTRIAL ROBOTIC ARM AND …eprints.utem.edu.my/18090/1/Design Of Wireless... · robotic arm and the microcontroller (Arduino UNO), if the signal is transferred

DESIGN OF WIRELESS INDUSTRIAL ROBOTIC ARM AND CONTROL USING ANDROID PLATFORM

TIONG XIANG KAI

This Report Is Submitted In Partial Fulfillment of Requirement for the Bachelor

Degree of Electronic Engineering (Industrial Electronics)

Faculty of Electronic and Computer Engineering

Universiti Teknical Malaysia Melaka

JUNE 2016

II

REPORT STATUS APPROVAL FORM

UNIVERSTI TEKNIKAL MALAYSIA MELAKA FAKULTI KEJURUTERAAN ELEKTRONIK DAN KEJURUTERAAN KOMPUTER

BORANG PENGESAHAN STATUS LAPORAN

PROJEK SARJANA MUDA II

Tajuk Projek : DESIGN OF WIRELESS INDUSTRIAL ROBOTIC ARM AND CONTROL

USING ANDROID PLATFORM

Sesi Pengajian :

1 5 / 1 6

Saya TIONG XIANG KAI mengaku membenarkan Laporan Projek Sarjana Muda ini disimpan di Perpustakaan dengan syarat-syarat kegunaan seperti berikut:

1. Laporan adalah hakmilik Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka.

2. Perpustakaan dibenarkan membuat salinan untuk tujuan pengajian sahaja.

3. Perpustakaan dibenarkan membuat salinan laporan ini sebagai bahan pertukaran antara institusi

pengajian tinggi.

4. Sila tandakan ( √ ) :

SULIT*

*(Mengandungi maklumat yang berdarjah keselamatan atau kepentingan Malaysia seperti yang termaktub di dalam AKTA RAHSIA RASMI 1972)

TERHAD**

**(Mengandungi maklumat terhad yang telah ditentukan oleh organisasi/badan di mana penyelidikan dijalankan)

TIDAK TERHAD

Disahkan oleh:

__________________ _________________________ (TANDATANGAN PENULIS) (COP DAN TANDATANGAN PENYELIA)

Tarikh: ……………………….. Tarikh: ………………………..

III

DECLARATION

“I hereby declare that the work in this project is my own except for summaries and

quotations which have been duly acknowledge.”

Signature : .......................................................

Author : TIONG XIANG KAI

Date : .......................................................

IV

SUPERVISOR’S DECLARATION

“I acknowledge that I have read this report and in my opinion this report is sufficient in

term of scope and quality for the award of Bachelor of Electronic Engineering (Industrial

Electronics) with Honours.”

Signature : .......................................................

Supervisor’s Name : DR. KHAIRUDDIN BIN OSMAN

Date : .......................................................

V

DEDICATION

Special thanks to my family, project supervisor, friends and others staff in UTeM

VI

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

As a students in UTeM, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to all of the

people around me because they have given their idea, contribution and spirit in order to

help me for my final year project. The appreciation should be given to my supervisor,

course mate and the people in charge for the final year project in these two semester.

The first person I would like to appreciate is my supervisor of FYP project, Dr.

Khairuddin Bin Osman. After the title has been chosen from him, a lot of comments and

ideas were given to me for helping me achieve the goal of the final year project.

Furthermore, he also help me to check any document needed to be presented and suggest

the best solution for me in order to solve my peradventure.

Secondly, I would like to thank with my friends in FKEKK because some of the

ideas were given by them and teach me how to generate software according to the

hardware I am going to design.

Lastly, a very huge graceful was given to the person who always gives the

information about the final year project to the student, Dr.Kok Swee Leong. Any

presentation date changed will be inform to every student in order to prepare their work

perfectly.

VII

ABSTRACT

Nowadays, robot such as line robot car, robotic arm, robotic finger and others

product were being using for several purpose. Robot bring a lot of benefit to the society,

so it is very popular used in industry, house and work place. In this project, the design of

wireless industrial robotic arm should be able to handle and lift up an object and also can

be controlled using Android Platform. Apps created is used as interface between the

robotic arm and the microcontroller (Arduino UNO), if the signal is transferred from

android, then Arduino UNO will received signal and start to control robotic arm. For the

wireless part, Bluetooth was chosen as the connection between android and Arduino UNO.

Any signal transferred to the Arduino UNO should pass through Bluetooth in order to run

the industrial robotic arm.

VIII

ABSTRAK

Pada masa kini, robot seperti kereta talian robot, lengan robot, jari robot dan

produk yang lain digunakan untuk beberapa tujuan. Robot membawa banyak manfaat

kepada masyarakat, jadi ia adalah sangat popular digunakan dalam industri, rumah dan

tempat kerja. Dalam projek ini, reka bentuk lengan robot industri tanpa wayar akan dapat

mengambil dan mengangkat objek dan juga boleh dikawal menggunakan “Android

Platform”. Aplikasi dicipta digunakan sebagai antara muka antara lengan robotik dan

pengawal mikro (Arduino UNO), jika isyarat dikeluarkan dari android, isyarat akan

didapati oleh Arduino UNO dan mula mengawal lengan robot. Bagi bahagian tanpa wayar,

Bluetooth dipilih sebagai hubungan antara android dan Arduino UNO. Apa-apa isyarat

dipindahkan ke Arduino UNO harus melalui Bluetooth untuk menjalankan lengan robot

perindustrian.

IX

TABLE OF CONTENT

CHAPTER TITLE PAGE

PROJECT’S TITLE

REPORT STATUS APPROVAL FORM ........................................ II

DECLARATION .............................................................................. III

SUPERVISOR’S DECLARATION ............................................... IV

DEDICATION .................................................................................... V

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ............................................................... VI

ABSTRACT ..................................................................................... VII

ABSTRAK ..................................................................................... VIII

TABLE OF CONTENT ................................................................... IX

LIST OF TABLE .......................................................................... XIII

LIST OF FIGURE ........................................................................ XIV

LIST OF APPENDICES ............................................................. XVII

X

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................... 1

1.1 Background and Project Overview ........................................... 1

1.2 Problem Statement ..................................................................... 2

1.3 Objectives .................................................................................... 2

1.4 Scope of Project .......................................................................... 3

1.5 Thesis Structure .......................................................................... 4

CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW ................................................................... 5

2.1 Literature Review ....................................................................... 5

2.2 Microcontroller ........................................................................... 5

2.2.1 Introduction of Arduino ..................................................... 6

2.2.2 Comparison of 3 Types of Arduino ................................... 8

2.2.3 Arduino Integrated Development Environment (IDE) . 10

2.3 Android Platform ..................................................................... 11

2.3.1 Introduction of MIT App Inventor 2 .............................. 13

2.4 Introduction of Servo Motor in Robotic Arm ........................ 14

2.4.1 Comparison Movement of Single and Multiple Motor. 15

2.4.2 Feature of Motor ............................................................... 16

2.4.3 Specification of Servo Motor ........................................... 17

2.5 Bluetooth .................................................................................... 18

2.5.1 Introduction of Bluetooth ................................................. 18

2.5.2 Comparison of Bluetooth with Other Wireless Device .. 19

XI

CHAPTER 3 METHODOLOGY ............................................................................ 20

3.1 Overview .................................................................................... 20

3.2 Project Planning ....................................................................... 20

3.3 Overall Project Flowchart ....................................................... 21

3.4 Block Diagram .......................................................................... 22

3.5 Flow Chart of Robotic Arm ..................................................... 23

3.6 Hardware Design ...................................................................... 27

3.6.1 Base and Lower Arm Design ........................................... 27

3.6.2 Upper Arm Design ............................................................ 29

3.7 Android Design ......................................................................... 31

3.7.1 Bluetooth Button Design .................................................. 31

3.7.2 Slider Design ...................................................................... 33

3.7.3 Button Design .................................................................... 35

3.7.4 Interface Layout ................................................................ 38

CHAPTER 4 RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS ...................................................... 40

4.1 Overview .................................................................................... 40

4.2 Movement of Each Servo Motor ............................................. 40

4.2.1 Base Analysis ..................................................................... 40

4.2.2 Lower Arm Analysis ......................................................... 44

4.2.3 Upper Arm Analysis ......................................................... 47

4.2.4 Gripper Analysis ............................................................... 51

4.2.5 Overall Analysis of Movement of Robotic Arm ............. 53

4.3 Output of Robotic Arm ............................................................ 56

4.4 Weight Handling and Lifting Analysis of Robotic Arm ....... 59

XII

4.5 Relationship of Robotic Arm and Android ............................ 60

4.5.1 Interface of Android ......................................................... 60

4.5.2 Functionality of Android in Controlling Robotic Arm . 61

CHAPTER 5 CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS .......................... 65

5.1 Conclusions ................................................................................ 65

5.2 Recommendations ..................................................................... 66

REFERENCES ............................................................................................................... 68

APPENDICES A: MICROCONTROLLER SOURCE CODE ................................. 72

APPENDICES B: BLOCK OF ANDROID PLATFORM ......................................... 78

XIII

LIST OF TABLE

TABLE CONTENT PAGE Table 2.1: Specification of Each Arduino .......................................................... 9

Table 2.2: Advantages of Android ................................................................... 11

Table 2.3: Strengthens and Weakness of Each Motor ..................................... 15

Table 2.4: Feature of Stepper and Servo motor ............................................... 16

Table 2.5: Feature of Wireless Device ............................................................. 19

Table 3.1: Signal Received by Each Part of Robotic Arm Planning ............... 23

Table 3.2 Information of Each Part of Base and Lower Arm ......................... 28

Table 3.3: Information of Each Part of Base and Lower Arm ......................... 30

Table 4.1: Data Analysis of Base ..................................................................... 43

Table 4.2: Data Analysis of Lower Arm .......................................................... 45

Table 4.3: Data Analysis of Upper Arm .......................................................... 48

Table 4.4: Data Analysis of Gripper ................................................................ 52

Table 4.5: Weight Analysis of Robotic Arm ................................................... 59

Table 4.6: Function of Each Button and Slider in Android ............................. 61

XIV

LIST OF FIGURE

FIGURE CONTENT PAGE

Figure 2.1: Several type of Arduino in Market .................................................... 8

Figure 2.2: Arduino IDE Software ..................................................................... 10

Figure 2.3: Several Type of Android ................................................................. 12

Figure 2.4: Specification Servo Motor ............................................................... 17

Figure 2.5: Bluetooth Device ............................................................................. 18

Figure 3.1: Flow Chart of Whole Project ........................................................... 21

Figure 3.2: Block Diagram of Robotic Arm ...................................................... 22

Figure 3.3: Whole Process in Robotic Arm ....................................................... 25

Figure 3.4: Main Material of Base in Robotic Arm ........................................... 27

Figure 3.5: Base and Lower Arm of Robotic Arm............................................. 28

Figure 3.6: Upper Arm Material ........................................................................ 29

Figure 3.7: Upper Arm of Robotic Arm............................................................. 30

Figure 3.8: Parameter of “HorizontalArrangement” .......................................... 31

Figure 3.9: Parameter of “ListPicker1” .............................................................. 32

Figure 3.10: Parameter of “Label8” ..................................................................... 32

XV

Figure 3.11: Parameter of “Slider 1” ................................................................... 33

Figure 3.12: Parameter of “Label2” ..................................................................... 34

Figure 3.13: Interface of Slider Design ................................................................ 34

Figure 3.14: Parameter of “Button1” ................................................................... 35

Figure 3.15: Parameter of “Up” and “Down” Label ............................................ 36

Figure 3.16: Parameter of “Hello” and “Reset” Button ....................................... 37

Figure 3.17: Non-Visible Components ................................................................ 37

Figure 3.18: Interface of Apps before Connect to Smartphone ........................... 38

Figure 3.19: Download Apps by Scanning QR Code .......................................... 39

Figure 4.1: Industrial Robotic Arm .................................................................... 41

Figure 4.2: Base of Robotic Arm ....................................................................... 42

Figure 4.3: Range of Base of Robotic Arm ....................................................... 42

Figure 4.4: Lower Arm of Robotic Arm. ........................................................... 44

Figure 4.5: Range of Lower Arm of Robotic Arm............................................. 44

Figure 4.6: Upper Arm of Robotic Arm............................................................. 47

Figure 4.7: Upper Arm of Robotic Arm at 0° .................................................... 47

Figure 4.8: Upper Arm of Robotic Arm at 120° ................................................ 48

Figure 4.9: Gripper of Industrial Robotic Arm .................................................. 51

Figure 4.10: Range of Gripper of Robotic Arm ................................................... 51

Figure 4.11: Overall Angle Movement of Robotic Arm ...................................... 53

XVI

Figure 4.12: Gripper in Industrial robotic arm with 70° ...................................... 54

Figure 4.13: Full Movement of Robotic Arm ...................................................... 58

Figure 4.14: Interface of Apps ............................................................................. 60

XVII

LIST OF APPENDICES

NO CONTENT PAGE

A MICROCONTROLLER SOURCE CODE…………………………..72

B BLOCK OF ANDROID PLATFORM……………………………….78

1

CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

1

Background and Project Overview

Robotic arm is a human technology device in order to help user or human to handle,

lift, stir and others kinematic motion some object. A lot of industry are now using robotic

arm to do some part or step which is hard for human arm such as soldering, putting and

recovering certain device with a very perfect specification and step. For civil engineer, it

is used to handle and lifting some heavy object from one place to another place. Others

than that, in molding and casting part, the robotic arm is using for cutting and pressing

purpose. Furthermore, robotic arm also use for packing process in the food industry, so

robotic arm has bring a lot of benefits to the world. The industrial robotic arm nowadays

is all controlled by human or the machine, so this project was going to create a different

industrial robotic arm and controlled it with the different device from the industry.

This project is created by using hardware (Body of Robot) and Software (Program

to control robotic arm with wireless). The shape of robotic arm has similar function as

human arm, the links of the manipulator can be considered to form a kinematic chain. In

this project I want to be able to utilize a robotic arm that will be able to pick up various

object with different shape by gripper. C++ program as an interface between robot and

computer and Arduino UNO as a microcontroller of the robot that consist of 4 degree of

freedom. For wireless part, an Android platform of application is created to control the

robotic arm with computer, hand phone or others device. In generally, the android app

will generate a signal and then the signal is received by the microcontroller (Arduino

2

UNO), so the industrial robotic arm is able to move or work according to the predefined

program wrote in the microcontroller.

A signal is generated from the android app which will be received by the controller

device and the robotic arm works according to the predefined program[23]. The android

application is acted as the command center of the robotic arm that means the whole

movement of the robotic arm is based on android. The program is written in the high level

programming language in the microcontroller and the requirement to control the arm

position is depended to the data and programming language in the android and

microcontroller.

Problem Statement

Robot is very popular be used in industry nowadays. In case of control the robot

with wireless device, there have some problem occurred in control section, even the way

to construct a new robot also will face some general problem. The problem faced by the

developer when constructing a robotic arm is the labor cannot move around the robot

freely because of disrupting with cable[2]. The wire will disturb the motion and movement

of the robotic arm if without any wire dressing process is apply to it. Second problem is

the robotic arm is difficult to be controlled and time consuming to control[3]. In order to

pick up some object, the position of the robotic arm should be exactly correct, if there is

any misdirection or over motion of the robotic arm then that object may not be lifted up

properly or failed to be handled. Android can be used to control the robotic arm, but it is

hard to make android device interoperate with the remaining parts of the robot[4]. This is

because the original position of the servo motor do not be set properly and the android

cannot control 2 or more servo motor in the same time.

Objectives

In order to solve the problem face by developer, some objectives were needed. The

objectives of this project are to design and construct a robotic arm capable of handling

and lifting and to design and develop a wireless robotic arm using Android Platform.

3

Scope of Project

The motion of this industrial robotic arm is limited to a circular path that means

the robotic arm can move in an autonomy of degree. For example, the volume and the area

of sphere is 43

𝜋𝑟3 and 4𝜋𝑟2respectively, so the movement and motion of the industrial

robotic arm was restricted according to the formulae. Any duty which can be done by the

movement along the circular shape of sphere can be performed by this robotic arm if the

coding written is matched. Arduino UNO is used as controller device (Using C++

programing), generally the reset circuitry and power setup will be ready especially the

circuitry of programming and communication between microcontroller and Universal

Series Bus (USB). The body and some special part of the robotic arms can be done with

aluminum board, hard and soft metal, board, PVC board and jumper wire. There are 3

arthrosis should be considered in robotic arm, so the materials used for the gripper and the

motion part are flexible. For the wireless control device, Android Platform of application

is used by connect it with Bluetooth.

The scope after the robotic arm already been constructed to a real machine will

able to handle tasks that are difficult and dangerous to human beings such as the handling

some chemical materials in the Lab and some other object which have the probability to

make the body of human be injured. Furthermore, the industrial robotic arm is able to

handle and lift a heavy object such as the weight of an object which is more than 5000N.

Generally the maximum weight can be lifted or handle by human arm averagely is 600N,

the human arm will be injured if the range of weight of an object is more than 600N.

Thirdly, the real robotic arm after designed can move in a free circular path according to

the programming and the one more importance matter is robotic arm is run by using

android and electric energy, so it will not get tired, that means the industrial robotic arm

can work with industry for 24-7.

4

Thesis Structure

This section is to talk about the overview of the thesis going to be done. In chapter

1, there are background, overview of the project and scope of project which is generally

talk about the construction of hardware and software. There are also have some problem

statement which are going to be solved according to the objectives given.

Chapter 2 is the literature review of the whole project. In this chapter, there are a

lot of student paper, public source and Internet source were read and come out with own

idea in creating the construction of industrial robotic arm.

After study all the paper and source from the internet, methodology was started

which is placed in chapter 3. In chapter 3, there is the flowchart of overall progress and

the flowchart of the movement of industrial robotic arm. This chapter also has mentioned

the steps to construct and create the body of robotic arm and android application. Even the

materials used in whole project also been clearly stated in this chapter.

Chapter 4 is the results and discussion of this project. In this chapter, all the

analysis of movement such as base, lower arm, upper arm and gripper have been recorded

and stated in a table and figure, so others people or student can easily to understand. Other

than that, weight handling and lifting analysis also be stated and recorded. Generally

chapter 4 is the way how a student analyzed the data obtain from the project, so it is

importance for the student or people who are going to read.

Conclusions and recommendations were be cover in this chapter, all the

sustainability, commercialization and future work will be stated in it and the achievement

of the objective also will be mention to prove the progress is successful or not.

5

CHAPTER 2

LITERATURE REVIEW

2

Literature Review

From the previous project, my senior has constructed an industrial robotic arms

and controlled using Visual Studio (SB). It is an integrated development

environment (IDE) from Microsoft. This software can be used as a development of

computer programs for the Microsoft Windows. Visual Studio is using Microsoft software

development platforms such as Windows API, Windows Forms and others platform in

order to control device. It can produce both native code and managed code. From the

senior designation, he apply Window Forms as his controller which has the similar

function as Android. Nowadays, most of the industrial robotic arm are controlled manually

in the machine, anything done by engineer cannot be considered as 100% perfectly,

everything is created based on safety and health of user, it is very dangerous when user

control robotic arm in the machine, it will course people be injured if there is collapsing

occurred.

Microcontroller

In term of desktop or laptop, microcontroller has played an importance role which

is acted as a computer with most of necessary support chips on board because each of the

computer contains CPU, RAM and input/output. In the other side, microcontroller is a

system of self-contained with peripherals, memory and a processor that can be used as an

embedded system[24]. Most of the embedded in other consumer products or machinery

are using programmable microcontrollers such as peripherals, automobiles, phones and

household appliances for computer systems. Since microcontroller contain “Embedded”

6

inside it so there is a new name was added to the microcontroller which is “embedded

controller” that means microcontroller can control the functionality, action, feature and

movement of the project or product. Every mission, duty or task was dedicated by

microcontroller and it is able to run the specific program, since that the program be written

will store in ROM and will not be change automatically, so the features of the

microcontroller were always be there. Lastly, microcontroller also acted as a low-power

device and it’s consume about 50 milliwatts of battery-operated.

The features or function of a microcontroller is to send a signal to specific device

or component by taking an input from the controlled device. For example, microcontroller

has its own program and component which is able to receive and transfer data, so the

general step of microcontroller when collecting data if from the signal given from others

electronic device such as computer, laptop, Apps and wireless device and then send it to

the device it is going to control such as motor, data editing, button, bulb or LED and others

application.

The range of an actual processor used to implement a microcontroller actually is

very wide and the area to be implemented also very large. By taking one of the product

nowadays such as microwave, the quantity request from the user on the CPU is in a very

low value, so the price of the microwave have to be made an adjustment. But from the

economic nowadays, every user of the microcontroller are wishing to get the product in

low cost with high quality, so the manufactures only focus to dedicate to the

microcontroller chips and make it become a low cost, low power and small in size of

product. There are 2 company which can produce this kind of chips which are Motorola

68ll and Intel 8051. There might have around 1000 bytes of ROM and 20 bytes of RAM

on the Chip with a typical low-end microcontroller chip and there are eight I/O pins along

the chip.

2.2.1 Introduction of Arduino

Arduino is an open source platform that offers a clear and simple environment for

physical computing[18]. A lot of application such as modern robotic, Internet-of-thing

(IoT) nowadays are controlled or run by using Arduino. Arduino board not only give an

7

output to the device but also able to read input from others application. Normally Arduino

UNO can read the signal given from the sensor of a light, button to an arm and some

message from internet application and then convert it to the output signal to activate,

control and trigger the specific device such as motor, LED and sending some message to

the online source.

It is very popular because its price is not too expensive, ease to be programmed,

and rapid prototyping capabilities. Normally, all of the sensor, device and components are

easily be connected to the input and output of Arduino UNO doesn’t matter the port is

analog and digital I/O pins, which features an on-board microcontroller programmed using

the Arduino IDE.

Arduino is different with some previous programmable circuit boards, from the

design of the previous board, it is being separated to some specific part with a limited

functions and features. From the design of Arduino UNO, it is combined with a few

separated piece of hardware, so it can load a new code on to the board. Arduino just need

an USB cable to connect it and computer. Additionally, the program used in Arduino IDE

is C++ which is the simplified version of coding and software to allow users can learn the

program easily. Finally, Arduino provides a standard form factor that breaks out the

functions of the micro-controller into a more accessible package[25].

In order to make Arduino UNO to be a high quality of microcontroller, the

complexity of physical computing applications is going to be increasing to make the

Arduino (compatible devices) with faster processors, increased flash storage, larger

memories and more complicated I/O architecture[19]. Figure 2.1 shows the several type

of Arduino in the market nowadays.