IJSTE - International Journal of Science Technology & Engineering | Volume 2 | Issue 12 | June 2016

ISSN (online): 2349-784X

Human Motion Controlled Wireless Robot

Myron Velton Rodrigues
UG Student
Department of Electronics and Telecommunication
Engineering
Don Bosco College of Engineering

Abdul Rakib M. R. Sarmadi

UG Student
Department of Electronics and Telecommunication
Engineering
Don Bosco College of Engineering

Sunny Rudresh Sinari

UG Student
Department of Electronics and Telecommunication
Engineering
Don Bosco College of Engineering

Shramik Sandip Salgaonkar

UG Student
Department of Electronics and Telecommunication
Engineering
Don Bosco College of Engineering

Sagar V. Nikam
UG Student
Department of Electronics and Telecommunication Engineering
Don Bosco College of Engineering

Abstract
In recent times there is an increasing need for robots for operating in different inhumane situations. They may involve collecting
data from harsh environments, military use, to carrying out maintenance work on space stations. The use of such robots requires
skilled personnel as the controllers used are not human friendly. Here we propose to build a human motion controlled robot that
can read data easily from a human interface and control motors accordingly to the input data. The robot also has Wi-Fi
connectivity hence is fully wireless and can be controlled from a large distance, a camera feedback is provided for the operator of
the robot so that he can monitor its movements when not in line of sight. Finally, this robot system is expected to reduce human
efforts in controlling robots and offer a wide variety of control applications which are not possible by computer algorithms.
Keywords: Linear Carbon Potentiometers, Raspberry-Pi, Arduino, Servo Motors, Camera
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I.

INTRODUCTION

Nowadays, robots are increasingly being integrated in working tasks to replace humans. Robots are increasingly being used in
different fields of operation including production lines in industries, military, hospitals and space exploration. Some robots have
a built in feedback systems which enables them to self-control their movements while others use an open loop system where
human control is required [1-2]. It becomes a tedious job to train personnel for controlling these robots and many a times the
operating conditions are harsh for humans.
Therefore a wireless robot controlled by natural human movements can prove useful in various fields [3].
In todays expanding technology various robots have been developed which have made human life simple but a great deal of
robots need complex computer algorithms for control or need skilled humans who can do the control work. Our robot has simple
potentiometer sensors which map human movements into varying voltages. The analog voltages are digitized by a built in analog
to digital convertor of the Arduino. The data is then sent to a network interface which in our case is the Raspberry pi. Another
Raspberry pi and Arduino system is used to receive and decode the data. This data is then passed to the servo motors which drive
the robot [4- 5].
II. BLOCK DIAGRAM
The block diagram in Fig.1. Shows that the linear carbon potentiometers are connected to the microcontroller which converts the
analog input data to digital data via the inbuilt analog to digital converter then the data from each motor is given an address and
is passed on to the network interface. The network interface uses socket programming to send data using UDP protocol to the
second network interface. The data is then transferred to the second Arduino which will depacketize the data and accordingly
map each value to the addressed servo motor. The USB camera is connected to the second interface to obtain visual feedback and
is then given to the first network interface via the router to be displayed on a mobile display.

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Fig. 1: Block Diagram representation of the Robot and its controller.

III. DESIGN AND DESCRIPTION

Hardware Design
As shown in Fig. 2. The hardware required on Controller side is linear carbon potentiometers to be placed at the joints of fingers
(index and thumb), Wrist, Elbow and Shoulder. The potentiometers are then connected to the microcontroller. The
microcontroller in turn is serially connected via a USB cable to the Raspberry Pi. The Raspberry Pi is connected to a WiFi router
via an Ethernet cable.
The Receiver side (Robot) as shown in Fig. 3. Also has a Raspberry Pi which is connected to Arduino and Arduino is
connected to the Servo motors on the robot via PWM pins.

Fig. 2: Circuit Diagram showing connection between various controller modules.

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Fig. 3: Circuit Diagram showing connection between various receiver modules.

Software Design
The software part involves acquiring the data from the potentiometers via the Analog to Digital converter of Arduino and
mapping an address to each sensor value. So that it can be exactly mapped to the servo on the receiver side controlling that
particular joint. The Raspberry Pi code involves socket programming to make an UDP connection between both the Raspberry
Pis.
IV. IMPLEMENTATION
Hardware Implementation
Fig. 4 shows the interface connected to a human arm. The static terminals of the potentiometers are shorted and connected to
Supply of 5 volts and common ground. The slider terminal of each potentiometer is connected to a separate analog to Digital
converter channel on the Arduino UNO. Acrylic material is used to make the moving and static shaft connected to the knob and
body respectively of the potentiometer. The acrylic shafts are fastened to human arm with Velcro as shown in Fig. 3. Human arm
movements cause the acrylic shafts to move and in turn rotate the potentiometer slider which in turn changes the voltage output
at the slider terminal.
The Arduino UNO board has a 10 bit analog to Digital convertor hence the values for full swing voltage range from 0
(potentiometer slider to minimum position) to 1023 (potentiometer slider to maximum position). Each value from a particular
channel is given an address i.e. an alphabet is appended to each value and transmitted serially to the network interface.
The Arduino on the receiver side receives data via the network interface and sends the particular signal value to the servos.

Fig. 4: The Designed interface connected to human arm.

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Fig. 5: The Robot which will be connected to the control circuits.

Software Implementation
The code to acquire data from the potentiometers is developed using the Arduino IDE which uses C++ language. The Smoothing
algorithm of Moving averages is implemented on Arduino itself to get a gradually changing output. An Address (alphabet) is
appended to each value from a particular joint on the human arm to form a data packet.
The Raspberry Pi receives this data serially from Arduino and sends it to the second Raspberry Pi through a particular IP
address using UDP protocol in socket programming. A software package called motion which uses mpeg compression to
transmit video is used for connecting the camera to the WiFi router. Any mobile device which is connected to the router and has
a display can be used to access the live video footage from the camera by just typing in the IP address and the port number of the
camera on the web browser.
The Arduino on the robot receives the data serially and checks for the first character in the received packet which is the
address. The remaining data is the value of the human joint position. This value is then mapped to the servo range of 0 degree to
180 degrees. And finally given to the corresponding servo via PWM signal from the Arduino.
V. CONCLUSION
The human arm interface can be used to program industrial robots and various other robots which use robotic arms for their
operation. It significantly reduces the workload of programming robots and controlling them with joystick controllers. The robot
can be controlled from a long distance since it is connected to WiFi. A video feedback makes it possible to operate the robot
accurately without the need of line of sight.
REFERENCES
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[2]
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[4]
[5]

Md. Bony Amin, G.M. Sultan Mahmud Rana, Abdullah-Al-Farabi, A.M.M. Nazmul Ahsan, Md. Ahasan Habib; Design and Implementation of a Remote
Controlled Robotic Arm Based on Industrial Application Perspective, International Conference on Mechanical, Industrial and Materials Engineering 2013,
RUET, Rajshahi, Bangladesh
B.O.Omijeh, R.Uhunmwangho, M.Ehikhamenle; Design Analysis of a Remote Controlled Pick and Place Robotic Vehicle, International Journal of
Engineering Research and Development, Volume 10, Issue 5 (May 2014), PP.57-68
Vikas R Thakur, Snehal M Gajbhiye; Wireless Monitoring of Human Limb Motion, (IJCSIT) International Journal of Computer Science and Information
Technologies, Vol.5 (3), 2014, 4222-4225
Nagamanikandan G, Rajadurai A; A Mobile 5 Axes Manipulator Robot with Visual Servo Control and Navigation International Journal of Innovative
Research in Science, Engineering and Technology, Volume 3, Special Issue 3, March 2014.
Aakash K. Sancheti; Gesture Actuated Robotic Arm, International Journal of Scientific and Research Publications, Volume 2, Issue 12, December 2012.

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