Robotics 

is the interdisciplinary branch
of engineering and science that includes mechanical
engineering, electrical engineering, computer
science, and others. Robotics deals with the design,
construction, operation, and use of robots.
A robot is a machine especially one programmable
by a computer capable of carrying out a complex
series of actions automatically. Robots can be
guided by an external control device or the control
may be embedded within. 
Manipulator consists of joints and links
Joints provide relative motion
Links are rigid members between joints
Various joint types: linear and rotary
Each joint provides a “degree-of-freedom”

Most robots possess five or six degrees-of-freedom

Robot manipulator consists of two sections:

Body-and-arm – for positioning of objects in the robot's work volume
Wrist assembly – for orientation of object
 Robotics Terminology

• DOF degrees-of-freedom: The smallest

number of real-valued coordinates needed to
represent a robot’s configuration is its degrees
of freedom (dof)
 Robotics Terminology

• Position: The translational (straight-line) location of something.

• Orientation: The rotational (angle) location of something. A
robot’s orientation is measured by roll, pitch, and yaw angles.
• Link: A rigid piece of material connecting joints in a robot.
• Joint: The device which allows relative motion between two
links in a robot.
• Kinematics: The study of motion without regard to forces.
• Dynamics: The study of motion with regard to forces.
• Actuator: Provides force for robot motion.
• Sensor: Reads variables in robot motion for use in control.
 Manipulator Joints

• Prismatic Joint: Linear, No rotation involved.

(Hydraulic or pneumatic cylinder)
• Revolute Joint: Rotary, (electrically driven with
stepper motor)
 Wrist Configurations

• Wrist assembly is attached to end-of-arm

• End effector is attached to wrist assembly
• Function of wrist assembly is to orient end effector
• Body-and-arm determines global position of end effector
• Two or three degrees of freedom:
• Roll, Pitch, Yaw. Notation :RRR
 Robot Control Systems

• Playback with Point-to-Point Control

• Playback control uses a controller with memory to
record motion sequences in a work cycle, as well as
associated locations and other parameters, and
then plays back the work cycle during program
execution. Point-to-point control means individual
robot positions are recorded in the memory. These
positions include both mechanical stops for each
joint, and the set of values that represent locations
in the range of each joint. Feedback control is used
to confirm that the individual joints achieve the
specified locations in the program.
• Playback with Continuous Path Control
Continuous path control refers to a control system
capable of continuous simultaneous control of
two or more axes. The following advantages are
noted with this type of playback control: greater
storage capacity—the number of locations that
can be stored is greater than in point-to-point;
and interpolation calculations may be used,
especially linear and circular interpolations.
• Intelligent Control
• An intelligent robot exhibits behavior that makes it seems
to be intelligent. For example, it may have capacity to
interact with its ambient surroundings; decision-making
capability; ability to communicate with humans; ability to
carry out computational analysis during the work cycle;
and responsiveness to advanced sensor inputs. They may
also possess the playback facilities. However it requires a
high level of computer control, and an advanced
programming language to input the decision-making logic
and other ‘intelligence' into the memory.
 End Effectors

• The special tooling for a robot that enables it

to perform a specific task
• Two types:
• Grippers – to grasp and manipulate objects
(e.g., parts) during work cycle
• Tools – to perform a process, e.g., spot
welding, spray painting
 ROBOT CLASSIFICATION

Robots with Cartesian

configurations consists of links
connected by linear joints (L). Gantry
robots are Cartesian robots (LLL).
A robot with 3 prismatic joints – the
axes consistent with a Cartesian
coordinate system.
Commonly used for: pick and place
Cartesian Configuration:
work
assembly operations
handling machine tools
arc welding
Cylindrical Configuration:
Robots with cylindrical
configuration have one rotary ( R)
joint at the base and linear (L) joints
succeeded to connect the links.
A robot with 2 prismatic joints and a
rotary joint – the axes consistent
with a cylindrical coordinate system.
Commonly used for: handling at die-
casting machines, assembly
operations, handling machine tools,
spot welding.
 Polar Configuration:
Polar robots have a work
space of spherical shape.
Generally, the arm is connected
to the base with a twisting (T)
joint and rotatory (R) and linear
(L) joints follow.
Applications: Material
handling, spot welding, machine
loading
Articulated Robots
A robot with at least 3 rotary
joints.
Commonly used for:
•assembly operations
•welding
•weld sealing
•spray painting, handling at
die casting or fettling
machines
SCARA Robot, SCARA
stands for Selectively
Compliant Assembly Robot
Arm
A robot with at least 2 parallel
rotary joints.
Commonly used for:
•pick and place work
assembly operations
Applications:
•Precision, high-speed, light
assembly
 Robot reach
• Robot reach, also known as the work envelope or work volume, is
the space of all points in the surrounding space that can be reached
by the robot arm.
• Determined by
• – Physical configurations
• – Size
• – Number of axes
• – The robot mounted position (overhead gantry, wall mounted, floor
mounted, on tracks)
• – Limits of arm and joint configurations
• – The addition of an end-effector can move or offset the entire
work volume.
For a Cartesian
configuration the reach is a
rectangular-type space.

For a cylindrical
configuration the reach is a
hollow cylindrical space.

For a polar configuration the

reach is part of a hollow
spherical shape.

Robot reach for a jointed-

arm configuration does not
have a specific shape.
 Robot Application

Machine loading,
Pick and place operations,
Welding,
Painting,
Sampling,
Assembly operation,
Manufacturing
Surveillance,
Medical applications,
assisting disabled individuals,
Hazardous environments,
Underwater,
space,
and
remote locations.
 Advantages VS Disadvantages of Robots

Robots increase productivity, safety, efficiency, quality, and consistency of

products.
 Robots can work in hazardous environments without the need.
 Robots need no environmental comfort.
 Robots work continuously without experiencing fatigue of problem.
 Robots have repeatable precision at all times.
 Robots can be much more accurate than human.
 Robots replace human workers creating economic problems.
 Robots can process multiple stimuli or tasks simultaneously.
 Robots lack capability to respond in emergencies.
 Robots, although superior in certain senses, have limited capabilities in
Degree of freedom, Dexterity, Sensors, Vision system, real time response.
 Robots are costly, due to Initial cost of equipment, Installation costs, Need
for Peripherals, Need for training, Need for programming.
 ROBOT CHARACTERISTICS

Payload Payload is the weight a robot can carry

Reach Reach is the maximum distance a robot can reach within its work
envelope.
Speed of movement: The amount of distance per unit time at which the robot
can move. Speed of the end effectors. Determined by the weight of the object.
Spatial Resolution: Smallest increment of motion at the wrist end that can be
controlled by the robot. Depends on the position control system, feedback
measurement, and mechanical accuracy.
Accuracy
The ability of a robot to go to the specified position without making a mistake.
It is impossible to position a machine exactly.
Accuracy is therefore defined as the ability of the robot to position itself to the desired
location with the minimal error (usually 25 mm).
Repeatability
The ability of a robot to repeatedly position itself when asked to perform a task
multiple times.
Accuracy is an absolute concept, repeatability is relative.
A robot that is repeatable may not be very accurate, visa versa.
Perhaps the most fundamental question one can ask about a robot is, where
is it? (In the sense of where the links of the robot are situated.)

The answer is the robot’s configuration: a specification of the positions of all points of
the robot. Since the robot’s links are rigid and of known shape, only a few numbers are needed
to represent the robot’s configuration.

For example, the configuration of a door can be represented by a single number, the angle θ that
the door rotates about its hinge.
The configuration of a point lying on a plane can be described by two coordinates, (x, y). The
configuration of a coin lying heads up on a flat table can be described by three coordinates: two
coordinates (x, y) that specify the location of a particular point on the coin, and one coordinate θ
that specifies the coin’s orientation.
The smallest number of real-valued coordinates needed to represent a robot’s configuration is
its degrees of freedom (dof).
In the example above, the door (regarded as a robot) has one degree of freedom. The coin
lying heads up on a table has three degrees of freedom.

a rigid body moving in three-dimensional space, which we call a spatial rigid body, has six
degrees of freedom. Similarly, a rigid body moving in a two-dimensional plane, which we
henceforth call a planar rigid body, has three degrees of freedom.
Robot Joints
Gr¨ubler’s Formula

Consider a mechanism consisting of N links, where ground is also regarded as a link.

Let J be the number of joints,

m be the number of degrees of freedom of a rigid body (m = 3 for planar mechanisms and m = 6
for spatial mechanisms),

fi be the number of freedoms provided by joint i,

and ci be the number of constraints provided by joint i

(it follows that fi + ci = m for all i).

Then Gr¨ubler’s formula for the degrees of freedom (dof) of the robot is
The planar four-bar linkage shown in Figure 2.4(a) consists of four links (one of them ground)
arranged in a single closed loop and connected by four revolute joints. Since all the links are
confined to move in the same plane, m = 3. Substituting N = 4, J = 4, and fi = 1, i = 1, . . . , 4, into
Gr¨ubler’s formula, we see that the four-bar linkage has one degree of freedom.

The slider-crank closed-chain mechanism of Figure 2.4(b) can be analyzed in

two ways: (i) the mechanism consists of three revolute joints and one prismatic joint (J = 4, and
each fi = 1) and four links (N = 4, including the ground link),
The planar mechanism illustrated in Figure 2.6 has
three links that meet at a single point on the right
of the large link. Recalling that a joint by definition
connects exactly two links, the joint at this point
of intersection should not be regarded as a single
revolute joint. Rather, it is correctly interpreted as
two revolute joints overlapping each other. Again,
there is more than one way to derive the number
of degrees of freedom of this mechanism using
Gr¨ubler’s formula:
(i) The mechanism consists of eight links (N = 8),
eight revolute joints, and one prismatic joint.
Substituting into Gr¨ubler’s formula,
 Introduction Robot Drive Systems 
The actions of the individual joints must be controlled in order for the
manipulator to perform a desired move its body, arm, motion and wrist. This
is provided by the drive system of robot. The joints are moved by actuators
powered by a particular form of drive system. Common drive systems used
in robotics are electric drive, hydraulic drive, and pneumatic drive. 
   
Types of Actuators      
*Electric Motors, like:  Servomotors, Stepper motors or Direct-drive electric
motors       
*Hydraulic actuators
*Pneumatic actuators

 The drive system determines the speed of the arm movement, the strength of
the robot, dynamic performance, and, to some extent, the kinds of
application.
 Electric Drive System: 
• high power or speed
• perfect for small robots and precise
applications.
• got greater accuracy and repeatability

• costlier
 Hydraulic Drive System: 

• large sized robots
• high power or speed than the electric drive

• leakage of hydraulic oils is considered as the

major disadvantage
 Pneumatic Drive System
• small type robots
• price of this system is less when compared to
the hydraulic drive
• will not be a perfect selection for the faster
operations
 Electrical Actuators 

• any electrical motor can be utilized as servo

motor
• are classified into AC and DC servo motors
• Synchronous-type AC servo motor 

• The induction-type AC servo motor

 Difference between the DC and AC Servo Motors

DC SERVO MOTOR AC SERVO MOTOR

It delivers high power output Delivers low output of about 0.5 W to 100 W

It has more stability problems It has less stable problems

frequent maintenance due to commutator less maintenance due to the absence of commutator

It provides high efficiency The efficiency of AC servo motor is less and is about 5 to 20%

The life of DC servo motor depends on the life on brush The life of AC servo motor depends on bearing life
life

These motors are used for high power applications These motors are used for low power applications
 The DC Stepper Motor 

• convert a pulsed digital input signal into a discrete

(incremental) mechanical movement
• is a type of synchronous brushless motor
• a rotor made up of many, some types have hundreds
of permanent magnetic teeth and a stator with
individual windings
• let’s assume that a stepper motor completes one
full revolution (360o in exactly 100 steps. Then the
step angle for the motor is given as 360 degrees/100
steps = 3.6 degrees per step. This value is commonly
known as the stepper motors Step Angle
• There are three basic types of stepper motor, Variable
Reluctance, Permanent Magnet and
Hybrid (a sort of combination of both).
• well suited to applications that require
• accurate positioning and repeatability with a fast
response to starting, stopping, reversing and speed
control
• and another key feature of the stepper motor, is its
ability to hold the load steady once the require
position is achieved. 
Single Stack Variable Reluctance Stepper Motors
3 Differences between Stepper Motor and Servo Motor:

• Stepper Motors have a large number of poles, magnetic

pairs generated by a permanent magnet or an electric
current. Servo motors have very few poles; each pole
offers a natural stepping point for the motor shaft.
• The torque of a stepper motor at low speeds is greater
than a servo motor of the same size.
• Stepper motor operation is synchronized by command
pulse signals output from the pulse generator. In
contrast, servomotor operation lags behind the
command pulses.
 Grippers 

• device at the end of a  robotic arm, designed to interact with the environment

• four general categories of robot grippers, these are:

1. Impactive jaws or claws which physically grasp by direct impact upon the
object.
 
2.   Ingressive pins, needles or hackles which physically penetrate the surface of
the object (used in textile, carbon and glass fibre handling).
 
3.   Astrictive suction [vague] forces applied to the objects surface (whether by
vacuum, magneto- or electroadhesion).

4.   Contigutive requiring direct contact for adhesion to take place (such as glue, 
 surface  tension or freezing).
• Two main types of action are performed by
grippers:
 Magnetic Grippers

• for grasping the ferrous materials

• The magnetic grippers can be classified into two common types,
namely: Magnetic grippers with 
•                     Electromagnets
•                     Permanent magnets, After this gripper grasps a work
part, an additional device called as stripper push –off pin will be
required to separate the work part from the magnet. This device
is incorporated at the sides of the gripper. The advantage of this
permanent magnet gripper is that it can be used in hazardous
applications like explosion-proof apparatus because of no
electrical circuit. Moreover, there is no possibility of spark
production as well.
• Benefits:    This gripper only requires one surface to grasp the materials.
•                 The grasping of materials is done very quickly.
•                 It  does  not  require separate  designs for  handling  different 
size  of materials.
•                 It is capable of grasping materials with holes, which is
unfeasible in the vacuum grippers.
•  Drawbacks:  The gripped work part has the chance of slipping out when
it is moving quickly.
•               Sometimes oil in the surface can reduce the strength of the
gripper.
•               The machining chips may stick to the gripper during unloading.
 Mechanical Gripper

• for grasping the objects with its mechanically

operated fingers.
• In a mechanical gripper, the holding of an
object can be done by two different
methods such as: 
•         Using the finger pads as like the shape
of the work part.
•         Using soft material finger pads. 
A pneumatic gripper
Types of Pneumatic Grippers
Major Factors in Choosing a Pneumatic Gripper and Jaw Design:

• 1. Part shape, orientation and dimensional variation

• 2. Part Weight
•
3. Accessibility
• 4. Environmental
•  
• 5. Retention of the Object
• When air pressure is lost, the gripper will relax its grip on
the object and the object may be dropped. There are
spring assist grippers designed for this type application. 
Hydraulic Grippers 
• Vacuum grippers are designed to attach to flat surfaces
by creating a vacuum and to remain attached to those
surfaces as long as the vacuum exists.
• Vacuum grippers are used to handle objects with planar
surfaces, such as metal plates and cardboard boxes.
• Generally, each vacuum gripper includes a number of
suction cups, each of which is connected to an air pressure
pump. To reduce the risk of malfunction due
to loss of vacuum, it is a common practice to use more
than one pressure suction cup.
Two-fingered gripper
Three-fingered gripper 
 Selection and design considerations in robot gripper

• ability to reach the surface of a work part.

•      The change in work part size
•      distort and scratch in the fragile work parts.
•      must hold the larger area of a work part if
it has various dimensions, which will certainly
increase stability and control in positioning.
•      The replaceable fingers can also be
employed for holding different work part sizes
 The following significant factors must be considered to
determine the necessary gripping force.

• Consideration must be taken to the weight of a work

part.
• It must be capable of grasping the work parts
constantly at its centre of mass.
• The speed of robot arm movement and the connection
between the direction of movement and gripper
position on the work part should be considered.
• It must determine either friction or physical
constriction helps to grip the work part.
• It must consider the co-efficient of friction between the
gripper and work part.
• Sensors are devices that are used to measure
physical variables like temperature, pH,
velocity, rotational rate, flow rate, pressure
and many others.
 Sensors used in Robotics

• Proximity Sensor
capable of pointing out the availability of a
component
 Range Sensor:

• Range Sensor is implemented in the end

effector of a robot to calculate the distance
between the sensor and a work part.
Ultrasonic Distance Sensor

Distance = Time x Speed of Sound divided by 2.

 Tactile Sensors:

• A sensing device that specifies the contact

between an object, and sensor is considered
as the Tactile Sensor.
• This sensor can be sorted into two key types
namely:
• Touch Sensor,
and    
•   Force Sensor.
Touch Sensor
 The force sensor
Strain Gauge Force Sensors

simple materials theory. The calculated

deformation is multiplied by the Young's
Modulus for a cross sectional area of the
material (which are both constants) to
calculate the force
 Compliance Sensor

• In industrial robotics, the term compliance refers to flexibility and

suppleness. To define what compliance is, the definition of non-
compliance is useful. A non-compliant (stiff) robot end effector is a
device which is designed to have predetermined positions or
trajectories. No matter what kind of external force is exerted the
robotic end effector will follow the exact same path each and every
time. On the other hand, a compliant end effector can reach several
positions and exert different forces on a given object. To make
things clearer: a compliant robot gripper can grasp an egg without
crushing it with the proper settings. A non-compliant gripper will
crush the egg and continue its given operation. Compliance aims
towards either process improvement (active) or human safety
(passive).
 Slip sensing

• Humans can grasp an object without

information such as a coefficient of friction or
weight. To implement this grasping motion
with the robot hand, sensors have been
proposed that detect an incipient slip within
the contact surface or stick-slip.
•  
Edge detection is an image processing technique for finding the boundaries of objects within
images. It works by detecting discontinuities in brightness. Edge detection is used for image
segmentation and data extraction in areas such as image processing, computer vision, and
machine vision.

In an image, an edge is a curve that follows a path of rapid change in image intensity. Edges are
often associated with the boundaries of objects in a scene. Edge detection is used to identify the
edges in an image.

To find edges, you can use the edge function. This function looks for places in the image where
the intensity changes rapidly, using one of these two criteria:

Places where the first derivative of the intensity is larger in magnitude than some threshold
Places where the second derivative of the intensity has a zero crossing
edge provides several derivative estimators, each of which implements one of these definitions.
For some of these estimators, you can specify whether the operation should be sensitive to
horizontal edges, vertical edges, or both. edge returns a binary image containing 1's where edges
are found and 0's elsewhere.

The most powerful edge-detection method that edge provides is the Canny method. The Canny
method differs from the other edge-detection methods in that it uses two different thresholds (t
detect strong and weak edges), and includes the weak edges in the output only if they are
connected to strong edges. This method is therefore less likely than the others to be fooled by
noise, and more likely to detect true weak edges.
Description of a position
Once a coordinate system is established, we can locate any point in the universe with
a 3 x 1 position vector.
Rotation with respect to the current frame
Example 2.6
Suppose that the above rotations are performed in the reverse order, that is,
first a rotation about the current z-axis followed by a rotation about the current
Rotation with respect to the fixed frame
Description of an orientation
Description of a frame
A frame is a coordinate system where, in addition to the orientation, we give a
position vector which locates its origin relative to some other embedding frame. For
example, frame
The 4 x 4 matrix in (2.19) is called
a homogeneous transform.
Inverting a transform
Kinematics is the science of motion that treats the subject without
regard to the forces that cause it. Within the science of kinematics, one
studies the position, the velocity, the acceleration, and all higher order
derivatives of the position variables (with respect to time or any other
variable(s)). Hence, the study of the kinematics of manipulators refers to
all the geometrical and time-based properties of the motion.
Derivation of link transformations
Inverse Kinematics
Geometric Solution Approach
Adept Robot Inverse Kinematics
VELOCITY KINEMATICS – THE MANIPULATOR JACOBIAN

SKEW SYMMETRIC MATRICES

we will derive properties of rotation matrices that can be used
to compute relative velocity transformations between coordinate frames. Such
transformations involve derivatives of rotation matrices.
FORWARD KINEMATICS: THE DENAVIT-HARTENBERG CONVENTION