International Conference on Mechanical, Industrial and Energy Engineering 2020

19-21 December, 2020, Khulna, BANGLADESH

ICMIEE20-259

Design and Construction of an Articulated Pick and Place Manipulator

Md. Istiaque Zahur*, Pronob Deb Nath, Md. Helal-An-Nahiyan, Md.Kutub Uddin
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Khulna University of Engineering & Technology, Khulna-9203, BANGLADESH

ABSTRACT
This paper presents the development of a pick and place articulated robot manipulator prototype. In some cases, human is
liable to make error under stress or repetitive work; whereas the robot manipulator can provide precise and efficient
performance if there is not much decision-making issue appears. This manipulator is designed and constructed to sort object
based on their length. The design of the manipulator is done considering the stress on each link. The control system is
embedded with microcontroller and manipulator mechanics. The microcontroller is used to render the activity when the
sensor detects any presence of object in the work envelope of the manipulator. MATLAB had been used to simulate the
work envelope of the manipulator and the trajectories it follows. The horizontal reach of the manipulator is 84 mm from the
base up to which it can pick the object and place it. The manipulator can pick the sensed object through sensor and by
following the joint angles, it places the object in the destination. It can place objects up to 15 cm length in one side and
larger size in another side. The developed prototype of the manipulator can handle a little amount of weight (15g) but proper
scaling to higher dimension may increase its lifting capacity.

Keywords: Manipulator, Kinematics, Microcontroller, MATLAB

1. Introduction forming an anthropomorphic structure [2]. Dynamics and

Industrial automation with robotic technology has control of a planer 3 DOF parallel manipulator with
ushered new scope and sector for human beings. Robot actuation redundancy studied by Jun Wu et al [3].
manipulator is a chain that connect several links by joints Kinematics and singularity analysis of a novel type of 3-
to produce rotational or translational swerving. The CRR 3-DOF translational and parallel manipulator
industrial revolution showed us the necessity of increased studied by Xianwen Kong and Clement M. Gosselin [4].
quality product and reduced the manufacturing cost and A decoupled 3 DOF parallel module head orientation and
time. The inflexibility and relatively high cost compelled kinematic optimization studied by Fugui Xie et al [5].
the industry to approach towards robotic technology. Gregorio presented a new architecture of a 3 DOF
Robot controllers have been presented by assembling parallel manipulator with pure translational motions [6].
ventures for playing out certain assignments, for example, A new 3 DOF translational parallel manipulator
material taking care of, spot welding, splash painting and kinematic analysis and design studied by Yangmin Li
gathering [1]. Manual production is comparatively slow, and Qingsong Xu [7]. Conditioning and stiffness indices
and it is only economical when the volume of production for optimum design of a 3 DOF spherical parallel
is less. Whereas the production increases rapidly and the manipulator operational performance studied by Xin-Jun
production process become more complex. Moreover, the Liu et al [8]. David Corbel et al analyzed about actuation
required material handling rate is high, and precision of redundancy to improve the acceleration capabilities of 3T
placement is extremely necessary. Therefore, optimum and 3T1R pick-and-place parallel manipulators [9].
solution is the use of robotic system that can be Position control method for pick and place robot arm for
developed and controlled easily and set up within the object sorting system studied by Khin Moe Myint et al
system to do the work without any obsolescence. [10]. Varinder Singh and Sukhdeep S. Dhami analyzed
Mechanical robots are utilized to do repetitive tasks as robot position optimization for a pick and place operation
well as those that require accuracy and speed regulation. with automated dynamic analysis of mechanical system
This has made it conceivable and improved the [11]. War War Naing et al design and analyzed position
effectiveness of their assembling. control of 3 DOF articulated robot arm using PID
The word robot entered in English jargon as right on controller [12].
time in1923, however, the real improvement of robot Nowadays, robot manipulator is a matter of great
controller did not happen until after 1940s. The rise of interest. But the fact is that the underdeveloped or
mechanical robots was expected at first to deal with developing countries are still far behind the race as the
dangerous materials and in space exploitation and later to technology here is so limited. There are likewise
accomplish industrial automation. Due to rapid numerous manipulators but among their designs, a few
development of this robotic arm and manipulator sector, have unique kinematics attributes. The main purpose is to
different kinds of study work related to design, control, build up a miniature of pick and place manipulator
operations and others sectors have been carried out with prototype that can be implemented in recycling plastics
the evolution of technology and process. Enaiyat Ghani plant. As plastic is lightweight the prototype can be really
Ovy et al works with a microcontroller-based controller handy in such industries. The technique used in sorting
circuit for the motion of an articulated robot with 3 DOF plastics for recycling is basically gathering of all sorts of

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 International Conference on Mechanical, Industrial and Energy Engineering 2020
19-21 December, 2020, Khulna, BANGLADESH

plastics and then dumping in a vessel containing holes. The articulated manipulator cad model is designed in
So the smaller plastics go through the holes and the SOLIDWORKS 2018 software with proper scaling as
larger one stays in the vessel. But this process can’t shown by Fig.2. Each of the parts components design
ensure quality sorting of plastics. So if manipulator is individually with shrinkage factor and save as that can be
introduced in the distribution line it can sort out the printed in 3D printer.
plastics easily by size. . The designed manipulator replicates usual arm
movement of human being only with 3 degree of freedom
2. Working principle The total weight of the manipulator is 481 gm. The base
There are variety of robot manipulators in action today is about 30mm high from the ground and the shoulder is
but the design considerations for each manipulator varies about 81mm from the base. This developed manipulator
based on their operating conditions. The main objective gets about 84 mm working space from the base to pick
of this project is to pick and place object and sort the and place object with its elbow. If only three links are
objects according to their size. There are two criteria for attached in serial combination, then the manipulator can
sorting objects for the manipulator. The main focus is become a pure cantilever beam. So I have attached
given on the fact that whether it is greater than 15 mm or parallel links to carry the same weight. So the payload is
not. If both the sensor sense that the distance or length actually divided into two segments.
greater than 15 mm then the object considered as large
and placed right side of the manipulator. Otherwise it is 3.2Construction
small object and placed at left of the manipulator. The manipulator structure is built with the following
The movement of the gripper originates from the components: (a) One Base, (b) Two links and (c) A
series transformation of previous joints. The gripper is gripper. All the components are 3D printed in Creality
controlled by a servo connected to pin 7. The jaw of the mini 3D printer maintaining the kinematics and balance
gripper stay at 750 apart at initial as one jaw is directly of load. As shown by Fig.3, the base of the manipulator
attached to servo’s shaft along with a gear which is in is set up on a frame with a height from the ground to
mesh with another gear that moves the other jaw. So assist the manipulator to move easily. The Arduino mega
whenever one jaw moves the other moves in make the alongside motor driver and resistor are set up just beneath
grip and there a rubber lining in the gripper that comforts the base on a different layer.
the holding of object. As shown by Fig.1, the detection of The sonar sensors notify the microcontroller about
objects and movement are followed by the whole the existence of nearby object and then the
manipulator system. The whole action part follows the microcontroller give command to the base servo motor to
figure for completing the command bestowed to the
manipulator.

3. Design and Development

Design and development of the robot manipulator is
accomplished in several steps as explained in the
following part.

Fig. 2: Isometric view of the manipulator

Fig. 1: Control scheme

3.1CAD Model
Fig. 3: Robot manipulator prototype

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 International Conference on Mechanical, Industrial and Energy Engineering 2020
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Table 2 Servo Motor movement capability.

Joint Angle Range Allowable speed
(degree) (degree/sec)
Base 0-180 1.80
Shoulder 90-120 1.80
Elbow 90-160 1.80

Fig. 4: Orientation of initial and final position Fig. 5: Arduino mega r3 2560 [13]

Table 1 Technical Specification of components.

Name Specification
Manipulator motor 2.20 kg-cm
Gripper motor 1.3 kg-cm
Microcontroller Arduino Mega 2560
Power System AC 9volt, 2 Amp adapter
Sensor HC-SR04
Fig. 6: Servo motors [14]
move around as needed. As shown by the Fig.4, the
manipulator moves from its initial position to destination.
The manipulator moves 900 ahead to grip the object and
while it catches the object, it will move about 00-900 or
the whole base can move about 1800 to place the object in
the specific destination. Servo motors are associated with
the pin number 4, 5, 6, 7 in the Arduino mega board and
the sensor 1 is appended to pin 12, 13 while sensor 2 is
connected to pin 8, 9. Four servo motors work for joint
movement and the movement is specified by objects
position.
Fig. 7: Sonar sensor [15]
4. System features
Serial port (ICSP) header and a reset button. In this work,
The whole system is divided into two units:
about 8 pins are used for controlling the manipulator with
mechanical unit and electrical unit. The electrical unit is
common power and ground pins for all experiments.
the main part that produce signals for the mechanical part
and the mechanical part moves according to the control
signal. The technical specification of different 4.2 Servo motor (MG90s and SG90s)
RC servo work by torque multiplication. There is
components is presented in Table 1 and Table 2.
combination of small drive gear and large driven gear so
Electrical unit consists of the following components
that it can produce high torque. Several numbers of such
describe below.
combination confirms it’s proper working. MG90s is
used as an actuator in this manipulator base and others
4.1 Arduino mega r3 2560
joints as it is small and lightweight with high output
The Arduino Mega r3 2560 is a microcontroller used
power. SG90s servo is used for gripper as it is
for different purpose. This Arduino board is based on the
lightweight and don’t effect much on overall load.
ATmega2560 as shown by Fig. 5. It includes 54 pins
digital input or output with 16 pins analog inputs and 14
pins used for PWM output. It also has 4 Universal 4.3 Sonar sensor
The sonar sensor 1 is attached to pin 12,13 and sonar
Asynchronous Receivers Transmitters (UARTs)
sensor 2 is attached to pin 8,9. All of thses are digital
hardware serial ports, a USB connector, a power jack, a
pins. There are two action occur during sonar detection.
16 MHz crystal oscillator, an In-Circuit

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 International Conference on Mechanical, Industrial and Energy Engineering 2020
19-21 December, 2020, Khulna, BANGLADESH

One is when the object is placed before the sensor the easy to see the joint rotation or movement during specific
sensor triggered by the pulse send by the arduino and the actions.
echo system calculate the distance or length & then the This visualization is done based on second joint angle as
servo system actuates to sort objects. to observe the change of angles while the manipulator
To fasten the connection between links and joints, stretched in its work envelope to perform specific task.
nuts and bolts are used properly. The system is powered The last one carried out for the third joint to inspect its
by using the 9V, 2A AC adapter. For connecting with angular efficiency and deviation during expansion of the
different electronics components, jumper wires are used. manipulator links. As shown by Fig.10 the manipulator
For completion of the circuit 220 Ω resistors are also gripper moves to the destination point where it places the
used. object to fulfill the objective. The simulation results show
how the manipulator gripper holds the object while the
5. Workspace simulation moving to the final position. The tension in the gripper
Characterizing the workspace is obviously arm makes able it to hold the object while moving.
significant for more than one explanation; pertaining to
but not limited to design, enhancement, wellbeing, and
designing of a kinematic structure layout [16]. When the
sonar finds anything, then it will confer a signal to the
Micro controller. At that point, the yield sign stops the
pivoting and turn over working to get the part. If there
should be an occurrence of holding an item, the processor
furnished with Arduino mega R3 that gives voltage
signal from double coded data.
As this is a three-dimensional co-ordinate framework,
this can be shown in MATLAB with following graphical
portrayal. As shown by Fig.8, the manipulator moves in
the downward direction while moving to catch the object
from the specific position. The second projection was
carried out for joint angle that varied from 30 0-900-1600.
Here, the manipulator moves in the horizontal direction
while it holds the object in its grasp. The gripper action is
very important for this step because holding and lifting
the object mostly depend on the gripper capacity.
During this action, the elbow of the manipulator is
completely stretched. The manipulator consists of
revolute joints. In Fig.9, around the three-dimensional
space, the elbow, shoulder, and base movement makes it
possible for the manipulator to reach and place in the
required position. The simulation results show the links Fig. 9: Workspace simulation for 300-900-1600
and joints instead of the whole body, so it makes easy to

Fig. 8: Workspace simulation for 00-900-1800 Fig. 10: Workspace simulation for 300-900-1200

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Table 3 Repeatability tests of manipulator.

Test no. Object type Time required
01 Small 10.75
02 Large 11.25
03 Small 10.82
04 Large 11.74
05 Small 10.91
06 Large 12.21

Table 4 Angular accuracy tests of manipulator.

Angle type Determined Actual Deviation
angle angle (%)
Θ1 90 84 6.67
Θ2 30 24 6.67
Θ3 70 68 2.86

Table 5: Lifting tests of manipulator

Test no Weight Remarks
01 5 Success
02 10 Success
Fig. 11: Workspace simulation for 00-900-1200 03 15 Success
04 20 Failed
As shown by Fig.11 that represents the movement
from the final to initial position for the next command to
carry out. Then the manipulator become ready for the
next command to follow.

6. Results
The fabrication process of an articulated manipulator
has discussed earlier in this study. During the preparing
and design verification process, all the parts developed
correctly and mate properly with each other. Dimensions,
weight of system components monitor during
development process as it cannot exceed maximum
allowable dimensions or weight. The electrical and
mechanical connection are integrated perfectly. Different
operating working conditions with effects results are
describe in the following part. Fig. 12: Joint velocity of the manipulator

6.1 Repeatability is restricted to lower limit.

The effectiveness of this manipulator changes while The repeatability tests show when loading occurs
doing repeatability test by doing the same job for several for several times the links and the servo are caught by
times. The end effector attempts to do the full task pick fatigue. Therefore, their working ability reduces as
and place object to the desired position as close as the time for placing the objects in destination
possible within the time. The time required to determine increases. During simulation the torque and velocity
each test are showed in Table 3. are visualized for varying load but the total torque in
each joint must be equal or less than the actuator
6.2 Angular accuracy torque. We need different position for every joint
Due to friction, payload of joints, effect of gravity, angle. Also for further calculation by MATLAB we
and inertia, the manipulator cannot be able to move to the need to input every joint mass, moment of inertia,
desired position with defined trajectory. With the help of joint angle with its first and second derivative,
manipulator link length, the most effective accuracy can jacobian and others parameters for calculation of
be obtained. After lots of similar trial, the maximum velocity and torque.
deviation is found as less than 7%. As shown by Fig.12, the joints of the
manipulator carry different load. Therefore, when the
6.3 Weightlifting test manipulator moves the velocity changes and
As it is a loading and unloading type manipulator it according to the Fig.12 the velocity change forms
has certain lifting ability. Though, it is developed as a curve during movement. During the lifting test the
prototype to visualize the actual model, its lifting ability prototype showed lifting capacity to a certain limit. It
actually simulates the actual model. Besides the

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 International Conference on Mechanical, Industrial and Energy Engineering 2020
19-21 December, 2020, Khulna, BANGLADESH

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