Design & Development of low cost 6Dof Robotic Manipulator kit for Educational Purpose

Project Title

Design & Development of low cost 6Dof Robotic Manipulator kit for Educational Purpose

Project Area of Specialization RoboticsProject Summary

Note: The project title has been changed from "Design & Development of 3DOF Robotic Manipulator for Educational Purpose" to "Design & Development of low cost 6DOF Robotic Manipulator kit for Educational Purpose"

Over the past few years, the teaching of robotics associated with hands-on practice has become an indispensable methodology for the subject. In this regard, various Educational robotic kits have been developed. Educational robots enable students of all ages to become familiar with and deepen their knowledge of robotics and programming, while at the same time learning other cognitive skills. However, a majority of the robotic kits applicable for the high school, undergraduate, or graduate levels are very expensive. To resolve this problem, we are aiming to design and develop a low-cost robotic manipulator kit for education purposes. The Kit will allow teachers to teach the basics of robotics, code, or program it in their classrooms to students of all ages. The estimated cost of such a kit will be a quarter of that available in the international markets.

The kit will be designed and developed as a 6 Degree of Freedom (DoF) serial robotic manipulator. The proposed robotic kit will have two modes of operation. One is Manual mode, which will allow the students to control each joint of the robot manipulator manually. While the second mode is an automatic mode where the robot can automatically detect the object placed in its configuration space and manipulate it to the given goal position that is provided by the user. Besides using the manipulator in these two modes, the kit will provide the interface to the user so that it can be programmed for any specific task as desired by the user. Once the kit will be completely developed it will be marketed as a low-cost solution for teaching robotics with hands-on practice at the high school and undergraduate levels.

Project Objectives

In today’s world automation plays a huge role in the modern economy. And Robotics is an essential part of automation. In this regard, our educational institutes need to teach and train students in the field of robotics. However, the key constraint is the cost of robot training kits, which are unaffordable for various educational institutes at this time of financial crisis in the country.  

The objective of the project is to design and develop a low-cost robot manipulator kit that can be used for teaching robotics at the high school and undergraduate levels. The kit will be developed so that it will allow the student to understand the basics of robotics, such as robot configuration space, Degree of freedom, robot forward and inverse kinematics, etc. Further, the kit can also be used for developing and practicing various algorithms on this kit with ease. 

After successfully developing prototyping we aim to get our project commercialized. In commercialization, our targeting audience will be the education sector. This low-cost robotic manipulator kit will provide students with a hands-on practice opportunity on the robotic system while they are learning robotics.

Project Implementation Method

The project implementation will be based on following flow:

In first phase we have already made a 3D design of robotic manipulator using 3D designing software “Solid Works”, In second phase we will take a 3D print of the robotic manipulator using 3D printer, in third phase we will assemble it and will install the required hardware (Motors, motor drivers, power supply, micro controller and stereo vision camera etc.), in fourth phase we will solve the forward and inverse kinematics for the robotic manipulator and develop a algorithm of automatic manipulation of the object by robot using robot vision, in fifth phase we will make an android app using the MIT App Inventor software and publishing it on Google Play store so that manipulator can be manually controlled by the user and in last phase we will test the robotic manipulator to check its functionality and remove bugs.

Benefits of the Project

The main benefit of that it will provide a low-cost robot manipulator kit that is one-fourth of the price of what is available in the international market. Hence saving the import bill of the country. The kit has usability in educational institutes ( high school and undergraduate levels ). The kit can be used to teach students the fundamentals of robotics. Besides this, it provides a low-cost alternative to the students for programming and testing their robot motion planning and task algorithms.

Technical Details of Final Deliverable

The project will deliver a robot manipulator kit that can be used in educational institutes to provide students with hands-on practice on robot systems while learning robotics.

The final deliverable will be an integrated robotic system. The system will consist of a 6DoF robotic arm integrated with an Arduino controller board, motor driver board, stereo vision camera, and a Bluetooth module. It will also be provided with a computer interface that can also be connected to a computer to run in an automatic mode. A DVD will be provided which will contain its software support developed by us and the operating manual of the developed system. Finally, an android app developed by us will also be published on the google play store that can be used by the user for the manual operation of the manipulator

Final Deliverable of the Project HW/SW integrated systemCore Industry ManufacturingOther Industries Education , Others Core Technology RoboticsOther Technologies Artificial Intelligence(AI), Internet of Things (IoT)Sustainable Development Goals Quality Education, Industry, Innovation and InfrastructureRequired Resources

Item Name	Type	No. of Units	Per Unit Cost (in Rs)	Total (in Rs)
			Total in (Rs)	80000
3D Printing	Equipment	1	20000	20000
Servo Motor with feedback sensors	Equipment	3	6675	20025
Motor driver board	Equipment	1	4880	4880
Micro Servo Motor with feedback sensors	Equipment	3	3165	9495
Bluetooth Module	Equipment	1	2000	2000
Microcontroller Unit	Equipment	1	9700	9700
Power Supply	Equipment	1	3900	3900
Nuts and Screws pack	Miscellaneous	1	500	500
Courier Charges and custom duties	Miscellaneous	1	9500	9500