Project Overview- Strong Arm
ECEN 4160, Spring 2005
Thaine Hock
Matt Corne
Sammit Adhya
Luz Quiñónez
Project Goals

To design and build the controlling electronics for a six-axis
robotic arm that can be controlled through the use of
simple finger motions

Arm will allow paraplegics to control robotic arm in three
dimensions

Proof of concept of a larger scale device and training
system
Adhya, Corne, Hock, Quinonez
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LED
Detection
Grid
Outline of Approach
PWM
GPIO
FPGAXilinx
XCS10
CS Signals
GPIO
MicrocontrollerFreescale
68MC12
GPIO
Finger
Sensors
Serial
Robotic
ArmLynxMotion
LCDOptrex
Serial
Touch
Screen
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Finger Sensors

Polar Coordinate Control System
– Push Buttons and Limit Switches
– Six directions of control
– Grip and Release
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Finger Diagrams
Limit Switch controls z axis (up)
/Button controls z axis (down)
Limit Switch controls Φ axis (right)
Thumb button
controls grip
/Button controls Φ axis (left)
Limit Switch controls r axis (forward)
/Button controls r axis (back)
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FPGA

Controls the IR Detection Array
– Determine Initial Block Positions
Send Polar Coordinate Position to
Micro Controller Using MemoryMapped Registers
 Create all needed glue logic for PCB

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FPGA Schematic
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Arm

Lynxmotion Robotic Arm
– Six degrees of freedom
• Base rotation, shoulder, elbow, wrist motion, wrist
rotate, and a functional gripper
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Movement Calculations
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Microcontroller
Compute servo positions
 Produce PWM signals to control
servos
 Process finger sensor data
 Process touch screen data

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Microcontroller Schematic
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Bus Design
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Microcontroller and Bus
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PCB Layout
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User Interface
• QVGA LCD with 8-wire
resistive touch screen
• Interfaces to MPU
through dual serial
interfaces.
• Able to store images in
onboard 16Mbit flash
memory.
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IR Sensors
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Parts List
Microcontroller
Microcontroller
Micromonitor
CMOS SRAM
CMOS Flash Memory
16-bit Bus Tranceiver
16-bit D Latch
MC9S12DP256BCPV
DS1705EPA
K6X0808C1D
Am29F010B
74AC16245DL
74AVC16373DGGR
FPGA
FPGA
PROM
XCS10-3PC84C
XC18V256
Miscellaneous
AND gate
Power Jack
SPST Button
TTL Clock
SM Capacitors
Diode
Voltage Regulator
Adhya, Corne, Hock, Quinonez
SN74LS08J
RAPC712
PGS125SK43
F1100E
T496
1N4008
LM7805CT
LM78M33C
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Startup Software Diagram
Power
On
Initialize
68MC12,
FPGA,
And
Arm
Position Registers
FPGABlock
Detection
Block Pos.
Block Pos.
68MC12Initial
Block
Positions
68MC12Main
Routine
Depending on
how many
blocks…
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68MC12Main
Routine
Control Software Flow
Poll
Finger
Sensors
Calculate
Servo
Positions
No Data
Generate
PWM
Signals
Adhya, Corne, Hock, Quinonez
Update
User
Interface
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Division of Labor

Finger Sensor
– Thaine

FPGA Implementation
– Sammit

PCB and Micro controller
– Thaine

Robotic Arm Algorithms
– Sammit and Matt

IR Sensor and Block Detection
– Luz

User Interface
– Matt
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Schedule
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Milestones

Milestone 1:
– User will move robotic arm in one
direction using our commands
produced by our board.

Milestone 2:
– Robotic arm will be able to pick up and
move a block in 3 dimensions. Also,
initial user interface with touch screen
will be complete.
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Milestone (cont…)

Open Lab:
– User ability to control robotic arm in the
relocation of blocks to a predefined
location.
– Once task is finished (successful or
not), system will locate blocks and reset
them to a known operating position.
– User (or helper) will interface with
system using a color touch screen.
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Risks and Contingency Plan
Mapping cylindrical coordinates to
servo positions may prove difficult
 IR sensors not sensitive enough to
detect block positions
 Fall Back Plan:

– A helper can physically reset system to
known operating state
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Cost (BOM)
Actual Expenditures
Item
Arm
Dev Board
Magnetic Sensors
PCB rev 1
E-Stores Parts
Latch / Tranceiver
Total
$807.58
Anticipated Expenditures
Cost
$272.70
$140.05
$195.01
$135.77
$51.05
$13.00
Date
1/24/2005
1/28/2005
1/31/2005
2/15/2005
2/17/2005
2/15/2005
Item
Arm
Dev Board
Magnetic Sensors
PCB rev 1
E-Stores Parts
Latch / Tranceiver
PCB rev 2
Parts (rev 2)
PCB rev 3
Parts (rev 3)
LEDs/Receivers
Touch Screen
Miscellaneous
Total
Adhya, Corne, Hock, Quinonez
Cost
$272.70
$140.05
$195.01
$135.77
$51.05
$13.00
$135.77
$100.00
$135.77
$100.00
$100.00
$500.00
$100.00
Date
1/24/2005
1/28/2005
1/31/2005
2/15/2005
2/17/2005
2/15/2005
3/16/2005
3/16/2005
3/28/2005
3/28/2005
3/16/2005
3/21/2005
4/12/2005
$1,979.12
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Economic Aspects and
Marketability





Training unit cost is relatively low
Practical arm cost will be very high
Moderate demand
Possibility of medical insurance covering
some/most of the cost
Approx 7800 Spinal Cord Injuries each
year, many of them could benefit1
1:http://www.sci-info-pages.com/facts.html
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Sustainability and
Manufacturability





Parts widely available for control circuitry.
Can be used with many different arms
Effect of component tolerances are low
except for a small handful
Auto-test routines in software
Complies with regulations and is safe to
operate (training version)
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Environmental Impact
Pros

Cons
Can be mostly leadfree
 No byproducts


Would need large
battery (most likely
toxic)
Consumes large
amounts of power
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Impact on Society

Full scale device would allow some
handicapped persons to be able to
perform more physical tasks,
qualifying them for more job
opportunities
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Questions?
Thanks!