ENGINEERING DESIGN PROJECT

on

Design and Development of Gesture Controlled Robotic Arm

Submitted by
Shubham Satyapal- 101455021
Akhilesh Mahajan- 101455035
Govardhan Jain- 101455033
]

Under the Guidance of

Mr. Nirbhow Jap Singh

Assistant Professor
Thapar University

2017
Electrical and Instrumentation Engineering Department
Thapar University, Patiala
(Declared as Deemed-to-be-University u/s 3 of the UGC Act., 1956)
Post Bag No. 32, Patiala 147004
Punjab (India)

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TABLE OF CONTENTS:

1. Introduction

1.1 Goal Objectives4

2. Project Description
2.1 Flex sensor ................................................................................5
2.2 Accelerometer............ ...............................................................5
2.3 Signal Conditioning6
2.4 PIC microcontroller6
3. Simulation Results
3.1 Simulation Results (I)...7
3.2 Simulation Results (2)..8
3.3 Problems Faced.9
4. Standards Used
4.1 Safety Standards..............9
4.2 Safety Standards for robotic arm.9
4.3 Serial Communication Standard for Zigbee.9
5. Comprehensive List of Components10
6. Schedule...12

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1. INTRODUCTION
In todays world, robots or robotic arm have a significant contribution to perform complicated
task. The complexity may be due to complicate operation or hazardous environmental
conditions. A typical robotic arm may have up to six degree of freedoms (DOFs) as per the
complexity of system [1]. Most of the robots in the present are controlled through predefined
decisions, and manually operated buttons [5]. The proposed work aims to develop an
alternative to increase the flexibility of robotic system and to replace the remote controls for
actuating manually operated Robotic-Arm. In the proposed work, a way to eradicate the
buttons, joysticks and replace them with more intuitive technique to control the complete
robotic arm by the hand gesture is suggested. The hand gesture will be sensed through flex
sensors and Accelerometer and transmits the wireless signals through RF module. Depending
on the received signals the robotic arm which is followed by PIC18F4550 microcontroller
performs the receptive motions at the receiver section.

Each arm has design specifications depending on the application at hand and the environment
of operation. Moreover, several factors needed to be addressed to determine the final design
characteristics such as the desired number of degrees of freedom, the maximum payload to be
carried, desired accuracy, the arm dimensions while stored, mode of operation and overall cost.
The use of buttons and predefined decision making program are not very flexible in comparison
to the robot controlled by hand gesture.
Table1. Related work done by researchers
Author (Year) Project description Microcontroller Journal name
Shamsheer Verma Development of gesture Arduino AEEE
(2013) controlled robotic arm
Pravin Vaishnav Accelerometer based hand 8051 IJSR
(2013) gesture controlled robot
Shalini Singh (2015) Gesture controlled using Arduino IJAREEIE
Acclereomter
Navneetlal (2016) Hand gesture controlled Arduino IJRITCC
robotic arm

The above table shows the work done by researchers in the development of robotic arm which
are controlled by hand gestures. However, every project has its own limitations. Shamsheer,
Navneetlal and Shalini have developed a gesture controlled robotic using arduino

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 microcontroller which is not very cost effective and it can only be programmed using arduino
compiler [2, 3, 4]. Pravin Vaishnav developed an accelerometer based gesture controlled
robotic arm using 8051 microcontroller which also has some limitations like 8051 is a 8-bit
microcontroller which can process 8 bits at a time[5].8051 has a complex instruction set based
(CISC) so some instructions require more than one cycle to execute. In order to overcome these
limitations the presented project is made using PIC microcontroller which is 16-bit
microcontroller, so it can process 16-bit data at a time and RISC based instruction set which
requires only one cycle to execute the instructions , making the system faster than 8051
microcontroller.

Therefore the proposed work aims to develop a robotic arm controlled using hand gesture. The
hand gesture will be sensed by flex sensor and accelerometer which provides input to the
microcontroller.

1.2 GOAL OBJECTIVES

In the light of above discussion and literature survey, the main objectives of the proposed work
are:

To acquire signal from the sensors and condition the acquired signal for transmission.
To transfer data on suitable wireless communication media.
To receive signal at receiver end and process it for controlling robotic hand.
To control the motor operated robotic hand.

2. PROJECT DESCRIPTION

SIGNAL PIC
FLEX SENSOR
CONDITIONING MICROCONTROLLER RF
(INPUT)
(18F4550) TRANSMITTER

ACCLEROMETER WIRELESS

CONNECTION
(INPUT)

MOTORS PIC
CONTROLLING MICROCONTROLLER RF RECEIVER
ROBOTIC ARM
(18F4550)

Figure1. Block diagram of the project

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The project is divided into two parts:

Transmitter end
Receiver end

At the transmitter end the input is obtained through flex sensors and accelerometers. The output
of flex sensor is conditioned using a voltage follower circuit using OP07 and low pass filter of
bandwidth 0-50Hz (change of signal of flex sensor is low). Accelerometer consist of inbuilt
signal conditioning. The output of sensors is analog voltages which are fed to microcontroller
through analog I/O PORTB. A/D converter in PIC converts the analog data into 10-bit parallel
data. The 10-bit digital parallel data is converted to serial data through USART which is fed to
to the RF Transmitter receiver pin. The data is received through RF receiver and is fed to PIC
microcontroller which process the data and controls the motor through motor IC.

2.1 Flex Sensor:

A flex sensor is a sensor that measures the amount of deflection or bending. The resistance is
directly proportional to bend. So greater the bend greater will be the voltage drop. The output
voltage drop signal is conditioned in the later stages.

Flat Resistance: 25K Ohms, Bend Resistance Range: 45K to 125K Ohms (depending on bend
radius)

2.2 Accelerometer:

The ADXL377 is a small, thin, low power, complete 3-axis accelerometer with signal
conditioned voltage outputs. The ADXL377 measures acceleration resulting from motion,
shock, or vibration with a typical full-scale range of 200 g. The user selects the bandwidth of
the accelerometer using the CX, CY, and CZ capacitors at the XOUT, YOUT, and ZOUT pins.
Bandwidths can be selected to suit the application, with a range of 0.5 Hz to 1300 Hz for the
x-axis and y-axis and a range of 0.5 Hz to 1000 Hz for the z-axis.
It is used to implement open loop acceleration measurement. The output signals are analog
voltages that are proportional to acceleration. Deflection of the structure is measured using a
differential capacitor that consists of independent fixed plates and plates attached to the moving
mass. Acceleration deflects the moving mass and unbalances the differential capacitor,
resulting in a sensor output whose amplitude is proportional to acceleration.

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2.3 Signal Conditioning:

The output of the flex sensor is conditioned using the signal conditioning circuit. Signal
conditioning circuit consists of OP07 and low pass filter. Op07 is used as a voltage follower
for impedance matching. The output of flex sensor is fed to Op07 and low pass filter is used to
eliminate noise which comes due to modifying and interfering inputs. The OP07 has very low
input offset voltage (75V maximum for OP07E) that is obtained by trimming at the wafer
stage. These low offset voltages generally eliminate any need for external nulling. The OP07
also features low input bias current (4nA for the OP07E) and high open-loop gain (200 V/mV
for the OP07E). The low offset and high open-loop gain make the OP07 particularly useful for
high gain instrumentation applications. The wide input voltage range of 13 V minimum
combined with a high CMRR of 106 dB (OP07E) and high input impedance provide high
accuracy in the non-inverting circuit configuration. Excellent linearity and gain accuracy can
be maintained even at high closed-loop gains. Stability of offsets and gain with time or
variations in temperature is excellent. The accuracy and stability of the OP07, even at high
gain, combined with the freedom from external nulling have made the OP07 an industry
standard for instrumentation applications.

2.4 Microcontroller:

PIC18F4550 controller is used to acquire the analog signal from the sensors i.e. flex and
accelerometer. Accelerometer and flex are connected to PORTA which by default accept
analog signal. Controller consist of A to D converter which converts the analog acquired signal
into 10/8 bit parallel digital output. The controller is programmed in such a way that it transmits
the serial data through RF transmitter and also controls the motors at receiver end.

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3.1 Simulation results (I):

The project is simulated as above. The software used for circuit simulation is Proteus. The
working of flex sensor is shown using potentiometer as a variable resistance. The voltage drop
in the potentiometer is shown on LCD. The input analog voltage is converted to digital using
10 bit A/D converter built in the microcontroller. Then the digital voltage is converted to analog
using the formula mv = Vin x 5000 / 1024. Potentiometer is used in LCD to improve the
contrast of LCD. OP07 is used as a voltage follower following a low pass RC filter of 50Hz to
remove noise due to interfering and modifying inputs. Since the frequency of change of signal
in flex sensor is very low so the frequency bandwidth is set to 50Hz. The compiler used to
make hex file is MicroC.

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3.2 Simulation results (2):

In this simulation serial wireless communication between two microcontrollers is done. The
above converted analog voltage is sent through RF module and is printed on the lcd at receiver
end.

3.3 Problems Faced:

In the first simulation shown above the major problem was raised due to the multiple functions
of the PORTB of the microcontroller. As PORTB by default is an analog I/O port. So to transfer
digital data to LCD through PORTB we first have to configure PORTB as digital I/O pin. It
can be configured as digital I/O pin using ANSEL register or LAT command.

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 In the second simulation, the difficulty that we are still facing is that we are not able to send
serial data through USART. The converted analog voltage from digital is not being able to be
displayed through serial communication.

4. Standards used:

4.1 Safety standard: RoHS/WEEE refers to restriction of hazardous substances like lead and
also prompts the use of following substances for the manufacturing of electrical components,

Mercury (Hg): < 100 ppm

Cadmium (Cd): < 100 ppm
Hexavalent Chromium: (Cr VI) < 1000 ppm
Polybrominated Biphenyls (PBB): < 1000 ppm
Polybrominated Diphenyl Ethers (PBDE): < 1000 ppm
Bis(2-Ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP): < 1000 ppm
Benzyl butyl phthalate (BBP): < 1000 ppm
Dibutyl phthalate (DBP): < 1000 ppm
Diisobutyl phthalate (DIBP): < 1000 ppm

4.2 Safety Standards of robotic arm:

ISO12100 Robotic Safety Standards

4.3 Serial Communication standard for ZIGBEE:

IEEE 802.15.4

5. Comprehensive List Of components:

S.No Components Description

1 FLEX SENSOR 2.2 Flat Resistance: 25K Ohms, Bend Resistance Range: 45K
(FS7548) to 125K Ohms (depending on bend radius). Power Rating
:0.5 Watts continuous; 1 Watt Peak

2 OP07(BUFFER IC) Low VOS: 75 V maximum Low VOS drift: 1.3 V/C
maximum Ultrastable vs. time: 1.5 V per month
maximum Low noise: 0.6 V p-p maximum Wide input

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 voltage range: 14 V typical Wide supply voltage range:
3 V to 18 V 125C temperature-tested dice

3 ADXL377 3-axis sensing Small, low profile package 3 mm 3 mm

1.45 mm LFCSP Low power: 300 A (typical) Single-
supply operation: 1.8 V to 3.6 V 10,000 g shock survival
Excellent temperature stability.

4 PIC18F4550 16-bit Microcontroller,40 Pin IC

5 Xbee S2 x2 XBee Pro 802.15.4 OEM RF module is used for long

range communication.
.It has range of 1600 meters in line of sight or 90
meters in indoors or urban area.
It is used for embedded solutions providing
addressable wireless end - point connectivity to
devices.

6 Xbee Explorer Dongle This unit works with all XBee modules including the
Series 1 and Series 2.5, standard and Pro version. The on-
board voltage regulator is good up to 500mA.

7 Dual H-bridge Mouser Part No: 595-SN754410NE

,SN754410NE Manufacturer Part No: SN754410NE
Manufacturer: Texas Instruments
Description: Motor/Motion/Ignition Controllers
& Drivers Quad Half

8 Trolley wheels x2 Diameter-30mm

9 12v DC motor x2 80RPM 12V DC geared motor

Current: 0.05A
Diameter: 25mm
Torque: 3kgcm
Dimensions: 2.13 in x 0.98 in x 0.98 in (5.4 cm x
2.5 cm x 2.5 cm)
Weight: 3.35 oz (95 g)

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10 4AA Battery holder This 4xAA battery holder puts a nice finishing
touch on your battery powered project.
The leads are about 150mm, and the last 5mm of
them are tinned.

11 8AA Battery holder

12 5V regulator Output Voltage: 5V

Output Current: 1.5A
Thermal Overload Protection
Short Circuit Protection
Output Transition SOA Protection

13 Battery cables Fits battery types 6LR61, 6F22 and equivalent

Even designed for battery holders
100 mm connection leads
Cable

14 Robotic Claw - MKII The claw opens to about 2" and depending on the servo
motor used, it can pick up some relatively heavy objects.
The new spring-loaded clutch helps protect your servo
gears from damage and also increases the gearing to 2:1,

15 Robotic Claw Pan/Tilt 4" long at full extension, 1 x 2.5" footprint

Bracket - MKII

16 Servo - Generic Metal Voltage: 4.8-6.0 Volts

Gear (Micro Size) Torque: 38.8/44.4 oz-in. (4.8/6.0V)
Speed: 0.20/0.18 sec/60 (4.8/6.0V)
Rotation: 180
Dual Ball Bearing
Metal Gears

17 Aluminium Spacer Length : 5 mm; 10 mm; 15 mm; 20 mm; 25 mm;

Stud, metric, 30 mm; 35 mm; 40 mm

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 internal/internal WA- Wrench: 6; 7
SALII

18 Glove
Regular rc wheels
(55mm) x2
Regular switch
Aluminium plate - any
local ironmongery
Cables
Soldering iron

6. Schedule:

August:

1. Full project simulation

2. Hardware Implementation of transmitter side

Semptember:

1. Hardware implementation of receiver side with motors.

2. Serial communication between transmitter and receiver side wirelessly

October:

1. Design and construction of robotic arm

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 2. Implementation of the reciever end on the robotic arm.

November:

1. Report and presentation of the project.

List of References:

[1]. Olwan, O., Matan, A., Abdullah, M. and Abu-Khalaf, J., 2015, December. The design and
analysis of a six-degree of freedom robotic arm. In Mechatronics and its Applications (ISMA),
2015 10th International Symposium on (pp. 1-6). IEEE.

[2]. Verma, S., 2013. Hand gestures remote controlled robotic arm. Advance in Electronic and
Electric Engineering, 3(5), pp.601-606.

[3]. Gupta, A., Tanwar, S., Singh, V., Lavanya, M. and Mittal, V.K., 2016, September. Design
of a GPS-enabled multi-modal multi-controlled intelligent spybot. In Advances in Computing,
Communications and Informatics (ICACCI), 2016 International Conference on (pp. 1464-
1467). IEEE.

[4]. Shalini, D. and Patil, R., Real Time Control System Based on Hand Gesture Detection and
Recognition.

[5]. Navneetlal B. Wagh, Prof. Rahul M. Patil, Namrata S. Navale, Eknath S. Shinde, Hand
Gesture Controlled Robotic Arm, ICMTEST 2016 Track , International Journal on Recent
and Innovation Trends in Computing and Communication (IJRITCC), ISSN: 2321-8169, PP:
435 - 437

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