Design and Test an Educational Model of a Robotic Arm on an Experimental Platform

A robotic arm with five degrees of freedom has been developed for use in learning laboratories. The arm's movements were designed and simulated in SOLIDWorks and LabVIEW. The LabVIEW Softmotion was used to impose motion constraints on the model. An Arduino Mega microcontroller was used to manipulate the servo motors in the joints. After the design and simulation, the system was implemented on a laboratory setup. The following steps were then specified to ‎verify the results of the LabVIEW-designed model with the real physical laboratory. These tests were the transfer of mass between two predetermined points along a certain direction. Its limitations were actuator torque and arm ‎stability limitations. Lastly, the comparison between the physical setup and the model showed high accuracy and performance in the execution of the movements. This study’s ‎findings show a qualitative enhancement in education laboratory equipment and extend to the establishment of an integrated learning system that connects the simulated model to the real laboratory systems.