'Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)'
Abstract
The process of deciding-on and purchasing the right manipulator(s) for a predetermined task can often turn to be very frustrating, especially when budget and purchase timing are essential factors. The market tends to get larger and variety driven and there is a choice for almost any given price range, however, the price / size ratio seems to remain constant. Larger scale manipulators do not show the price amortization enjoyed by the majority of computerized consumer hardware over the past few years. In addition, the manufacturers for many of these manipulators do not provide adequate pre-sales supporting technical material (whether a result of lack of standardized specifications or pure negligence), nor effective warranties and service. Primarily affected are higher level educational institutions, where manipulators are likely to be exposed to student projects that demand constant diversity and various controlling software and hardware technique. These manipulators are likely to become victims of abusive usage and, in addition, the institutions need to offer some of the highest standards of safety for the students. This paper presents a software simulation and control package applied on a specific manipulator. The package presents a significant tool in solving problems such as the above mentioned ones. In addition, the software offers a variety of implementation examples that can be directly derived from the simulation package
