Development of a Prototype Robot Manipulator for Industrial Pick-and-Place Operations

In the industry today, continuous attempts to realize optimal efficiency and increased productivity have spawned much progress in the use of intelligent automated devices and machines to perform various operations and tasks. The thrust of this work is to present the development of a three-degree-of-freedom revolute robot manipulator amenable to pick-and-place operations in the industry. Appropriate kinematic equations of the manipulator are obtained, and then used to develop algorithms for locating predetermined positions of a small object in a customized workspace. An Arduino-based controller circuit is built to implement the algorithms, and servomotors are used to carry out independent joint control of the manipulator. The positions of the object are identified with the aid of light-dependent resistors (LDR). Besides, in order to aid easy fabrication of links and overall system assembly, a 3D model of the manipulator is designed. The results of the work, showing effective and satisfactory operation of the manipulator, are presented