ABSTRACT

Mankind has always strived to give life like qualities to its artifacts in an
attempt to find substitutes for himself to carry out his orders and also to work in
a hostile environment. The popular concept of a mechanical arm is of a machine
that looks and works like a human arm.

The industry is moving from current state of automation to Robotization, to

increase productivity and to deliver uniform quality. The industrial robots of
today may not look the least bit like a human being although all the research is
directed to provide more and more anthropomorphic and humanlike features
and super-human capabilities in these.

One type of robot commonly used in industry is a robotic manipulator or simply

a mechanical arm. It is an open or closed kinematic chain of rigid links
interconnected by movable joints. In some configurations, links can be
considered to correspond to human anatomy as waist, upper arm and forearm
with joint at shoulder and elbow. At end of arm a wrist joint connects an end
effector which may be a tool and its fixture or a gripper or any other device to
work.

Here how a pick and place mechanical arm can be designed for a workstation
where loading and packing of lead batteries is been presented. All the various
problems and obstructions for the loading process has been deeply analyzed and
been taken into consideration while designing the pick and place mechanical
arm.

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 CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION

Mechanical is the branch of engineering science & Technology related to

machinery, and their design, manufacture, application, and structural
disposition. Robotics is related to electronics, mechanics, and software.
Robotics research today is focused on developing systems that exhibit
modularity, flexibility, redundancy, fault-tolerance, a general and extensible
software environment and seamless connectivity to other machines, some
researchers focus on completely automating a manufacturing process or a task,
by providing sensor based intelligence to the mechanical arm, while others try
to solidify the analytical foundations on which many of the basic concepts in
robotics are built.

In this highly developing society time and man power are critical
constrains for completion of task in large scales. The automation is playing
important role to save human efforts in most of the regular and frequently
carried works. One of the major and most commonly performed works is
picking and placing of jobs from source to destination.

Present day industry is increasingly turning towards computer-based

automation mainly due to the need for increased productivity and delivery of
end products with uniform quality. The inflexibility and generally high cost of
hard-automation systems, which have been used for automated manufacturing
tasks in the past, have led to a broad based interest in the use of mechanical arm
capable of performing a variety of manufacturing functions in a flexible
environment and at lower costs. The use of Industrial mechanical arm
characterizes some of contemporary trends in automation of the manufacturing
process. However, present day industrial mechanical arm also exhibit a
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monolithic mechanical structure and closed-system software architecture. They
are concentrated on simple repetitive tasks, which tend not to require high
precision.

The pick and place mechanical arm is a human controlled based system
that detects the object, picks that object from source location and places at
desired location. For detection of object, human detect presence of object and
move machine accordingly.

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COMPONENTS OF MECHANICAL ARM:

1. Structure

The structure of a mechanical arm is usually mostly mechanical and can be

called a kinematic chain. The chain is formed of links, actuators, and joints
which can allow one or more degrees of freedom. Most contemporary
mechanical arm use open serial chains in which each link connects the one
before to the one after it. These mechanical arm are often resemble the human
arm. mechanical arm used as manipulators have an end effector mounted on the
last link. This end effector can be anything from a welding device to a
mechanical hand used to manipulate the environment.

2. Power Source

At present mostly (lead-acid) batteries are used, but potential power sources
could be:

 Pneumatic (compressed gases)

 Hydraulics (compressed liquids)
 Flywheel energy storage
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  Organic garbage (through anaerobic digestion)
 Still untested energy sources (e.g. Nuclear Fusion reactors)

3. Actuation

Actuators are like the "muscles" of a mechanical arm, the parts which convert
stored energy into movement. By far the most popular actuators are electric
motors that spin a wheel or gear, and linear actuators that control industrial
mechanical arm in factors. But there are some recent advances in alternative
types of actuators, powered by electricity, chemicals, or compressed air.

4. Touch

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Current mechanical arm receive far less tactile information than the human
hand. Recent research has developed a tactile sensor array that mimics the
mechanical properties and touch receptors of human fingertips. The sensor array
is constructed as a rigid core surrounded by conductive fluid contained by an
elastomeric skin. Electrodes are mounted on the surface of the rigid core and are
connected to an impedance-measuring device within the core. When the
artificial skin touches an object the fluid path around the electrodes is deformed,
producing impedance changes that map the forces received from the object.

5. Vision

Computer vision is the science and technology of machines that see. As a

scientific discipline, computer vision is concerned with the theory behind
artificial systems that extract information from images. The image data can take
many forms, such as video sequences and views from cameras.

In most practical computer vision applications, the computers are pre-

programmed to solve a particular task, but methods based on learning are now
becoming increasingly common.

Computer vision systems rely on image sensors which detect electromagnetic

radiation which is typically in the form of either visible light or infra-red light.
The sensors are designed using solid-state physics. The process by which light
propagates and reflects off surfaces is explained using optics. Sophisticated
image sensors even require quantum mechanics to provide a complete
understanding of the image formation process.

6. Manipulation

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Mechanical arm which must work in the real world require some way to
manipulate objects; pick up, modify, destroy, or otherwise have an effect. Thus
the 'hands' of a mechanical arm are often referred to as end effectors, while the
arm is referred to as a manipulator. Most mechanical arm arms have replaceable
effectors, each allowing them to perform some small range of tasks. Some have
a fixed manipulator which cannot be replaced, while a few have one very
general purpose manipulator, for example a humanoid hand.

1 Mechanical Grippers: One of the most common effectors is the gripper.

In its simplest manifestation it consists of just two fingers which can open
and close to pick up and let go of a range of small objects. Fingers can for
example be made of a chain with a metal wire run trough it.

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2 Vacuum Grippers: Pick and place robots for electronic components and
for large objects like car windscreens, will often use very simple vacuum
grippers. These are very simple astrictive devices, but can hold very large
loads provided the pretension surface is smooth enough to ensure suction.

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 CHAPTER 2

CLASSIFICATION OF MECHANICAL ARM

Industrial mechanical arm are found in a variety of locations including the
automobile and manufacturing industries. Mechanical arm cut and shape
fabricated parts, assemble machinery and inspect manufactured parts. Some
types of jobs mechanical arm do: load bricks, die cast, drill, fasten, forge, make
glass, grind, heat treat, load/unload machines, machine parts, handle parts,
measure, monitor radiation, run nuts, sort parts, clean parts, profile objects,
perform quality control, rivet, sand blast, change tools and weld.

Outside the manufacturing world mechanical arm perform other important jobs.
They can be found in hazardous duty service, maintenance jobs, fighting fires,
medical applications, military warfare and on the farm.

2.1 TYPES OF MECHANICAL ARM AS PER APPLICATIONS

Nowadays, mechanical arm do a lot of different tasks in many fields. And this
number of jobs entrusted to mechanical arm is growing steadily. That's why one
of the best ways how to divide mechanical arm into types is a division by their
application.

2.1.1 Industrial Mechanical Arm: mechanical arm today are being

utilized in a wide variety of industrial applications. Any job that involves
repetitiveness, accuracy, endurance, speed, and reliability can be done much
better by robots, which is why many industrial jobs that used to be done by
humans are increasingly being done by mechanical arm.

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2.1.2 Mobile Mechanical Arm: Also known as Automated Guided
Vehicles, or AGVs, these are used for transporting material over large sized
places like hospitals,container ports, and warehouses, using wires or markers
placed in the floor, or lasers, or vision, tosense the environment they operate in.
An advanced form of the AGV is the SGV, or the Self Guided Vehicle, like
PatrolBot Gofer, Tug, and Speci-Minder, which can be taught to autonomously
navigate within a space.

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2.1.3 Agriculture Mechanical Arm: Although the idea of Mechanical
Arm planting seeds, ploughing fields, and gathering the harvest may seem
straight out of a futuristic science fiction book, nevertheless there are several
Mechanical Arm in the experimental stages of being used for agricultural
purposes, such as mechanical arm that can pickapples.

2.1.4 Telemechanical Arm: These mechanical arm are used in places that
are hazardous to humans, or are inaccessible or far away. A human operator
located at a distance from a telemechanical arm controls its action, which was
accomplished with the arm of the space shuttle. Telemechanical arm are also
useful in nuclear power plants where they, instead of humans, can handle
hazardous material or undertake operations potentially harmful for humans.

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2.1.5 Service Mechanical Arm: The Japanese are in the forefront in these
types of mechanical arm. Essentially, this category comprises of any mechanical
arm that is used outside an industrial facility, although they can be sub-divided
into two main types of mechanical arm: one, mechanical arm used for
professional jobs, and the second, mechanical arm used for personal use.
Amongst the former type are the above mentioned mechanical arm used for
military use, and then there are mechanical arm that are used for underwater
jobs, or mechanical arm used for cleaning hazardous waste, and the like.

2.2 TYPES OF MECHANICAL ARM BY LOCOMOTION &

KINEMATICS

As you can understand, mechanical arm application alone does not provide
enough information when talking about a specific mechanical arm. For example
an industrial mechanical arm - usually, when talking about industrial
mechanical arm we think of stationary mechanical arm in a work cell that do a
specific task.

2.2.1 Cartesian Mechanical Arm : Used for pick and place work,

application of sealant, assembly operations, handling machine tools and arc

welding. It's a mechanical arm whose arm has three prismatic joints, whose axes
are coincident with a Cartesian coordinator.

2.2.2 Cylindrical Mechanical Arm : Used for assembly operations,

handling at machine tools, spot welding, and handling at die-casting machines.

It's a mechanical arm whose axes form a cylindrical coordinate system.

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2.2.3 Spherical/Polar Mechanical Arm : Used for handling at machine
tools, spot welding, die-casting, fettling machines, gas welding and arc welding.
It's a mechanical arm whose axes form a polar coordinate system.

2.2.4 SCARA Mechanical Arm : Used for pick and place work,
application of sealant, assembly operations and handling machine tools. It's a
mechanical arm which has two parallel rotary joints to provide compliance in a
plane.

2.2.5 Articulated Mechanical Arm : Used for assembly operations, die-

casting, fettling machines, gas welding, arc welding and spray painting. It's a
mechanical arm whose arm has at least three rotary joints.

2.2.6 Parallel Mechanical Arm : One use is a mobile platform handling

cockpit flight simulators. It's a mechanical arm whose arms have concurrent
prismatic or rotary joints.

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 CHAPTER 3

SELECTION OF TASK

1.1 TASKS

The various tasks which a pick and place mechanical arm can perform are as
follows:-

3.1.1 Pick-And-Place

The use of mechanical arm for placing products in cartons and transfer of
cartons and products between different stations in the packaging lines is very
common in all industries. High speed pick-and-place mechanical arm for
placing small items like candy and cookies in packages are often combined with
a visual observation system for identifying products.

3.1.2 Handling Of Flexible Packages

Flexible packaging material is the generic term for soft packages made of film,
foil or paper sheeting. Popular forms are stand-up pouches, bags, sachets and
envelopes. These packages are often formed, filled and sealed in a vertical or
horizontal form-fill-seal machine. The package is then finally put into a case by
top loading.

3.1.3 Cartooning Machines

Cartooning machines erect boxes from flat sheets of corrugated material. The
erected boxes are then filled with products or individual cartons and are then
prepared for the palletizing process. As with most packaging machines, vacuum
cups, vacuum pumps and other pneumatic components are an essential part of
the cartooning.

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3.1.4 Rotary Cartoners

Rotary cartoner is one of the most popular types of cartooning machines. These
machines use a series of vacuum bars equipped with suction cups that move in a
continuous rotary motion. Rotary cartoners utilize a "pick-and-carry" motion to
move cartons.

3.1.5 Pick & Place Mechanical Arm

The use of specialized machines for high speed pick-and-place of small items
with suction cups is very common in the electronics and consumer industries.
This application is typically characterized by short cycle times, high
acceleration forces and large variations on the parts to be handled.

3.1.6 Seal Machines

During the pouch/bag forming phase vacuum is often applied to transport belts
that help provide a grip on both sides of the pouch/bag material. The vacuum
belt moves the pouch material from a web roll into position to receive the
product from the filler. Holes in the belt allow vacuum to hold the pouch while
the belt is rotating and the pouch is been removed.

3.1.7 Bag Opening

Vacuum and suction cups are used to pick and open paper and plastic bags.
Suction cups with stiffer bellows and a soft sealing lip are preferred in these
quite often high-speed applications.

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3.2 SELECTION OF TASK
 From the various tasks which can be done using the pick and place
Mechanical Arm we have particularly the process of picking & placing
process.

 We have decided to pick an box (Dimensions 45x45x65mm approx,

Weight 1.5 kg) from the conveyor.

 Then placing it at the center table , also picking a automobile tyre from
the work station and moving towards the center table.

 Placing of tyre at center table and again movement to the work station to
pick an another thing.

 So the picking & placing is done using this pick and place mechanical
arm.

3.3 WHY PICK & PLACE MECHANICAL ARM

We have selected the pick and place mechanical arm for this particular
process due to the following reasons:-

 Using of Human labour for the loading and unloading of the box and tyre
will consume more time.
 Even though Number of laborers is required more, the loading and
unloading time should include allowances if laborers are considered.

 Moreover the work can be done easily using a single pick and place
mechanical arm, which is used for both loading and unloading purpose.

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3.4 DEFINING WORK STATION
The work station for this operation of pick & place is been designed in such a
way that:-

 The box coming from the far distances is been sensed by a human and the
moment of the mechanical arm is been controlled by the mechanical arm.

 As one by one the boxes comes, the mechanical arm picks one box and
moves towards the centre table , keeps the boxes on the it.

 Then picks the tyre from there and moves towards the center table and
places the tyre there.

 Further mechanical arm movement continuous towards the return journey

takes a Box from table and again the above procedure is been carried out.

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 CHAPTER 4
DESIGN PROCEDURE

4.1 FACTORS TO BE CONSIDERED

The various factors to be considered while designing of pick and place

mechanical arm are been discussed as follows. The factors are all important
while designing procedure of the mechanical arm.

4.1.1 Controls

The mechanical structure of a mechanical arm must be controlled to perform

tasks. The control of a mechanical arm involves three distinct phases -
perception, processing, and action. human knows information about the
environment (e.g. the position of its joints or its end effector). This information
is then processed to calculate the appropriate power to the actuators (motors)
which move the mechanical.

The processing phase can range in complexity. At a reactive level, it may

translate raw information directly into actuator power. human sense fusion may
first be used to estimate parameters of interest (e.g. the position of the robot's
gripper) . An immediate task (such as moving the gripper in a certain direction)
is done from these estimates. Techniques from control theory convert the task
into commands that drive the actuators.

At longer time scales or with more sophisticated tasks, the mechanical arm may
need to build and reason with a "cognitive" model. Cognitive models try to
represent the mechanical arm, the world, and how they interact. Pattern

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recognition and computer vision can be used to track objects. Mapping
techniques can be used to build maps of the world. Finally, motion planning and
other artificial intelligence techniques may be used to figure out how to act. For
example, a planner may figure out how to achieve a task without hitting
obstacles, falling over, etc.

4.1.2 Autonomy Levels

Control systems may also have varying levels of autonomy.

 Direct interaction is used for hap tic or tale-operated devices, and the
human has nearly complete control over the mechanical arm motion.
 Operator-assist modes have the operator commanding medium-to-high-
level tasks, with the mechanical arm figuring out how to achieve them.
 An autonomous mechanical arm may go for extended periods of time
without human interaction. Higher levels of autonomy do not necessarily
require more complex cognitive capabilities. For example, mechanical
arm in assembly plants are completely autonomous, but operate in a fixed
pattern.

Another classification takes into account the interaction between human control
and the machine motions.

1. Teleportation: - A human controls each movement; each machine

actuator change is specified by the operator.

2. Supervisory: - A human specifies general moves or position changes
and the machine decides specific movements of its actuators.
3. Task-level autonomy: - The operator specifies only the task and the
mechanical arm manages itself to complete it.
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 4. Full autonomy: - The machine will create and complete all its tasks
without human interaction.

4.1.3 Safety Requirements

The various safety requirements which were considered while designing the
mechanical arm are decided as follows:
 The mechanical arm should not be programmed such that it should
damage the Battery while holding it in its gripper.
 Correct holding position should be set as if it not set then while
movement of the mechanical arm it may drop the Lead Batteries which
can arise a Hazardous situation in the industry.
 The mechanical arm should be interfaced properly with the sensors been
placed near the Belt conveyor so as to know when the belt conveyor is to
be stopped or to be started to move the batteries ahead.
 Load carrying capacity should be maintained as it should be always more
than the default load which is to be shifted.

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 CHAPTER 5

STEPS OF DESIGN

5.1 SELECTION OF PRODUCT

From the number of products available we selected the Box and tyre of
automobiles for been used in our project. We had number of options for the
selection of product, as per our requirement the Box and tyre was matching the
conditions. The other products which we considered were as follows:-

 Bearing:- Due to radial cross section of the bearing, it would be little bit
difficult for the mechanical arm Gripper to hold the bearing in it and
transport from one place to another holding it. So we rejected this product.
 Bags Of Iron Ore: - The fines bagging system was pre-decided but
due to the weight limit we switched over the other products.

5.2 DESIGNING OF WORKSPACE

The designing of work space have been done by keeping following points in
mind:-

 It should utilize Minimum time for doing the job.

 No obstructions should be there in between the workspace envelope.
 Idle time should be reduced as much as possible.
 Efficient and safe transportation of the Box should be under gone.

The design of work space includes a center table upon which the box from the
plant and it is been transferred to the centre table Using the mechanical arm.
There is moment of 90 degrees; the mechanical arm picks a Box from the
centre table after placing the Box. Then the mechanical arm proceed towards
the automobile tyre where it unloads and repeat the same procedure.
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5.3 DEGREE OF FREEDOM

The number of DOF that a manipulator possesses is the number of independent

position variables that would have to be specified in order to locate all parts of
the mechanism; it refers to the number of different ways in which a mechanical
arm can move in the particular direction.

In the case of typical industrial mechanical arm, because a manipulator is

usually an open kinematic chain, and because each joint position is usually
defined with a single variable, the number of joints equals the number of
degrees of freedom.

FIG 5.2 DEGREE OF FREEDOM.

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We can use the arm to get the idea of degrees of freedom. Keeping the arm
straight, moving it from shoulder, we can move in three ways. Up-and-down
movement is called pitch. Movement to the right and left is called yaw. By
rotating the whole arm as screwdriver is called roll. The shoulder has three
degrees of freedom. They are pitch, yaw and roll.

Moving the arm from the elbow only, holding the shoulder in same position
constantly. The elbow joint has the equivalent of pitch in shoulder joint, thus the
elbow has one degree of freedom. Now moving the wrist straight and motion
less, we can bend the wrist and up and down, side to side and it can also twist a
little. The lower arm has the same three degrees of freedom. Thus the
mechanical arm has totally seven degrees of freedom. Three degrees of freedom
are sufficient to bring the end of a mechanical arm to any point within its
workspace, or work envelope in three dimensions.

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 CHAPTER 6

WORKS TO BE DONE

6.1 SELECTION OF PARTS

Various components of appropriate specifications should be selected so as to

complete the fabrication and assembly of the mechanical arm. If the
selection is not done properly then the proper working of the mechanical arm
cannot be obtained. It includes the parts like selection of actuators, motors,
wires etc. Thus the selection procedure of various components is also an
important issue for the project work.

6.2 COMPLETION OF MODEL

HUMAN BEING

FIG 6.1 BLOCK DIAGRAM OF INTERFACING OF MECHANICAL ARM.

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 Future work is to fabricate and manufacture the complete body structure
of the mechanical arm, then the assembly of all the manufactured parts are to
be done so that the required load is lifted and been transported to the targeted
place.

6.3 INTERFACING WITH THE HUMAN

In the industrial design field of human-machine interaction, the user interface is

where interaction between humans and machines occurs. The goal of interaction
between a human and a machine at the user interface is effective operation and
control of the machine, and feedback from the machine which aids the operator
in making operational decisions.

A user interface is the system by which people (users) interact with a machine.
The user interface includes hardware (physical) and machine component. User
interfaces exist for various systems, and provide a means of:

 Input, allowing the users to manipulate a system,

 Output, allowing the system to indicate the effects of the users'
manipulation

After completion of the model of the pick and place mechanical arm and
selection of task both should be interfaced. The interfacing of mechanical arm
and human using it is the most important thing in the project. then final
movement should be set using the human control. The movement of mechanical
arm should be precisely managed causing no harm to the operator, and also the
box which are to be moved from one station to another.

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8.4 CONTOLS:

The control of mechanical arm is done through moters which take dc power
supply through wired remote. The power comes from ac source and adapter
converts it into 12V dc supply.

A remote control vehicle is defined as any vehicle that is remotely controlled

by a means that does not restrict its motion with an origin external to the device.
This is often a radio control device, cable between control and vehicle.

A remote control vehicle or RCV differs from a robot in that the RCV is
always controlled by a human and takes no positive action autonomously

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 CHAPTER 9

ADVANTAGES, DISADVANTAGES AND APPLICATIONS

9.1 ADVANTAGES

 Quality: 
Industrial automated mechanical arm have the capacity to dramatically
improve product quality. Applications are performed with precision and
high repeatability every time. This level of consistency can be hard to
achieve any other way.
 Production:
With mechanical arm, throughput speeds increase, which directly impacts
production. Because an automated mechanical arm has the ability to
work at a constant speed without pausing for breaks, sleep, vacations, it
has the potential to produce more than a human worker.
 Safety:
mechanical arm increase workplace safety. Workers are moved to
supervisory roles where they no longer have to perform dangerous
applications in hazardous settings.
 Savings:
Improved worker safety leads to financial savings. There are fewer
healthcare and insurance concerns for employers. Automated mechanical
arm also offer untiring performance which saves valuable time. Their
movements are always exact, minimizing material waste.

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 9.2 DIADVANTAGES

 Expense:
The initial investment to integrated automated robotics into your business
is significant, especially when business owners are limiting their
purchases to new robotic equipment. The cost of robotic automation
should be calculated in light of a business' greater financial budget.
Regular maintenance needs can have a financial toll as well.
 ROI:
Incorporating industrial robots does not guarantee results. Without
planning, companies can have difficulty achieving their goals.
 Expertise:
Employees will require training program and interact with the new
robotic equipment. This normally takes time and financial output.
 Safety:
Robots may protect workers from some hazards, but in the meantime,
their very presence can create other safety problems. These new dangers
must be taken into consideration.

9.3 APPLICATIONS

 Application robots are being used worldwide to increase quality and meet
production requirements. 
 RobotWorx integrates new and reconditioned robotic systems for a wide
spectrum of robot applications. Our expert engineers will help your
company find the solution for any application.

 WELDING ROBOT APPLICATIONS

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  Arc Welding
 Electron Beam
 Flux Core Welding
 Laser Welding
 MIG Welding
 Plasma Cutting
 Plasma Welding
 Spot Welding
 TIG Welding
 Welding Automation
 Material Handling Robot Applications

DIAGRAM SHOWING WIRING SYSTEM OF PROJECT:

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 REFERENCES

 www.google.com

 www.wikipedia.com

 www.robologix.com

 www.robotics.com

 www.seattlerobotics.org/encoder/aug97/basics.html

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