UNIT-2

Robotics and Automation

Links
• https://robocademy.com/2020/04/21/robot-kinematics-in-a-nutshell/
Contents
• Classification of Robots
• Links and Joints
• Degree of freedom
• Motors-DC motors
• Stepper Motors
• Servo Motors
• Type of Gears
• Robotic Sensors
• Applications of Robot
• S/w used for Robot programming.
Classification of Robots
• Robots can be classified based on the application, by their locomotion / kinematics and by
their mobility.
• Classifying Robots by their Application: Based on this classification, there are two broad ways
of categorizing robots.
1)Industrial Robots
2)Service Robots
Industrial Robots: These were one of the first robots to be used commercially. In a factory
assembly line, these are usually in the form of articulated arms specifically developed for such
applications as welding, material handling, painting and others.
• They can be further subdivided as:
1)Manufacturing Robots
2)Logistics Robots
Classification of Robots
• Manufacturing robots are designed to move materials, as well as perform a variety of programmed tasks in
manufacturing and production settings. They are often used to perform duties that are dangerous or
unsuitable for human workers.

• Logistics robots are mobile automated guided vehicles primarily used in warehouses and storage facilities to
transport goods.

Service robots: The International Organization for Standardization defines a service robot as ‘a
robot that performs useful tasks for humans.’ They can be further subdivided as:

1. Medical robots
2. Home robots
3. Defence robots
4. Entertainment robots
5. Agricultural robots
6. Educational robots
Classification of Robots
Medical robots are professional service robots that are used in and out of hospital settings
to improve the level of patient care. These robots reduce the workload of the medical
staff, which allows them to spend more time caring directly for patients. Mobile medical
robots are used for the delivery of medication and other sensitive materials in a
hospital.
Home robots automate tasks like cleaning and disinfecting.
The primary purpose of Education robots is to make kids aware of their potential, utility, and
help kids build their own robots using readymade kits. Educational robots are used
extensively in schools, both in classrooms and in extracurricular activities.

One of the most important uses of robots in defence is to ensure the safety of soldiers and
civilians. For example, remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) are used to carry out
dangerous tasks or activities in hazardous environments, drones are used for
surveillance, and so on.
Agricultural robots sense weather pattern and can adjust the watering of crop as needed, can
be used for sowing, de-weeding, and harvesting crops.
 Classification of Robots
• Entertainment Robots: These robots are produced for providing pleasure and good
emotions to us and they usually do not have other functions.
Eg: robotic dogs, Humanoid robots.
Classification of Robots
Classifying Robots by their Kinematics or Locomotion: Robots can also be classified
according to how they move – or not move.
 Cartesian Robots: these are perhaps the most common types of robots. They have three axes
which are linear i.e, they can only move in straight lines rather than rotating and are mounted at
right angles to each other. Because of their rigid structure, this type of robots usually can offer
good levels of precision and repeatability. Cartesian robots are mostly used in the industrial and
the manufacturing sector for pick and place type of operations.
Classification of Robots
• Cylindrical robots: The body of this type of robot is such that the robotic arm can move up and down along a
vertical member. The arm can rotate about that vertical axis and the arm can also extend or contract. This
construction makes the manipulator able to work in a cylindrical space. They are used for assembly operations,
spot welding and for die casting machines. These cannot reach the objects lying on the floor.
Classification of Robots
• Spherical coordinate Robots(Polar coordinate Robots): This type of robot can move in a bi-
angular and single linear direction. SCARA Robots: SCARA stands for Selective Compliance
Arm for Robotic Assembly. This type of robot has one linear and two rotary movements.
Can be used to pick up objects lying on the floor. They are used for assembly purposes all
over the world.
Classification of Robots
• Revolute coordinate or Articulated Robots: These are robots with a wide range of movements that
include forward, backward, upward and downward motion. Because of their large work envelope,
articulated robots can be used for several different applications like assembly, arc welding, material
handling, machine tending, and packaging.

Note: PUMA stands for Programmable Universal Machine for Assembly

Classification of Robots
Classification of Robots
• Serial Manipulator: This is the most common industrial robot ,designed as a
series of links connected by motor actuated joints.
• Parallel Manipulator: It is a closed loop kinematic chain where several serial
chains are used to control a single platform.
• Load carrying capacity for parallel manipulators will be more than serial
manipulators..
• Mobile Robots: Robots with moving base are called as mobile robots.
• Wheeled robots can be used on smooth terrains.
• For rough terrains or for staircases we can go for multi-legged robots.
• If the terrain is neither to smooth nor too rough then we go for tracked robots.
TRACKED ROBOT
Classification of Robots
Classification of Robots
Other types:

 Airborne Robots: these robots can fly through the air. Drones are an extremely
popular example of flying robots.

 Aquatic Robots: These robots can work on or under water. They are mostly used
for underwater exploration of oil, gas or minerals.
Links and Joints
• The mechanical structure of a robotic manipulator is a mechanism whose members are
rigid links or bars connected by means of joints(Articulations), is segmented into an arm
that ensures mobility and reachability , a wrist that confers orientation and an end
effector that performs the required task.
• A rigid link that can be connected with at most two other links is referred to as a binary
link.
• Figure below shows two rigid binary links 1 and 2 each with two holes at the ends A,B
and C,D respectively to connect with each other or to other links.
Links and Joints
• Two links are connected together by a joint.
• By putting a pin through holes B and C of links 1 and 2,an open kinematic chain is formed as
shown in the next slide.
• The joint formed is called a pin joint also known as revolute or rotary joint.
• The kinematic chain formed by joining two links is extended by connecting more links. To
form a manipulator , one end of the chain is connected to the base or ground with a joint.
• Such a manipulator is an open kinematic chain.
• The end effector is connected to the free end of the last link as shown in figure 1.5.
• Closed kinematic chains are used in special purpose manipulators, such as parallel
manipulators , to create certain kind of motion of the end effector.
• Relative rotary motion between the links is possible and the two links are said to be paired.
Links are represented by straight lines and rotary joint by a small circle.
• At a joint ,links are connected such that they can be made to move relative to each other by
the actuators.
 Joint and Joint Notation scheme
• Two basic types types of joints are used in industrial robots
1)Revolute
2)Prismatic
• The relative motion of the adjoining links of a joint is either rotary or linear depending on
the type of joint.
• Revolute Joint: The two links are joined by a pin about the axis of which the links can rotate
with respect to each other.
• Prismatic joint: The two links are joined so that these can slide(linearly move) with respect
to each other. Screw and nut(slow linear motion of the nut),rack and pinion are ways to
implement prismatic joints.
• A rotary joint allows a pure rotation of one link relative to the connecting link and prismatic
joint allows a pure translation of one link relative to the connecting link.
Joint and Joint Notation scheme
• Orthogonal joint(o-joint): This type of joint allows a translational motion between the
input and output links with the axis of thew links perpendicular to each other.
• Linear Joint(L-joint):This type of joint allows a translational motion between the input and
output links with the axis of the links parallel to each other.
• Linear joints and orthogonal joints are prismatic joints.
• Other types of possible joints are planar(one surface sliding on the other
surface),rotary(one link can rotate and slide about the axis),spherical(one link can move
with respect to other in three dimensions.
• Another variant of rotary joint is twist joint where two links remain aligned along a straight
line but one turns about the other around the link axis.
Joint and Joint Notation scheme
• Cylindrical joint: Cylindrical joint has one rotation degree of freedom where
the link can rotate about the axis and one translational degree of freedom
where it can translate through the axis.
• Twisting Joint(T-Joint): This type of joint allows rotary motion with the axis of
rotation parallel to the axes of input and output link.
• Spherical Joint(Ball-Socket joint):One link can move with respect to other in
three dimensions.
Orthogonal joint
Linear joint
Degrees of freedom
Fig 1.9: Representation of six degrees
of freedom
Degrees of freedom
Degree of freedom
Degree of freedom
Degree of freedom
• To position and orient a body freely in 3-D space , a manipulator with
6 degrees of freedom is required. Such a manipulator is called
spatial manipulator.
Degree of freedom
DOF of a system: Defined as the minimum number of independent parameters
/variables/coordinates needed to describe the system completely.
Degree of freedom

Eg:Minimover
Degree of freedom
Degree of freedom
Degree of freedom
Motors
• Motors take electrical energy and produce mechanical energy. Electric motors are utilized to power hundreds
of devices we use in everyday life.
• DC Motor: A DC motor is defined as a class of electrical motors that convert direct current electrical energy
into mechanical energy.
• From the above definition, we can conclude that any electric motor that is operated using direct current or DC
is called a DC motor.
DC MOTOR DIAGRAM
Motors
• In an electric motor, the operation is dependent upon simple electromagnetism. A current-
carrying conductor generates a magnetic field. When this is then placed in an external
magnetic field, it will encounter a force proportional to the current in the conductor and
to the strength of the external magnetic field.
• DC Motor consists of field windings to provide the magnetic flux and armature which acts
as the conductor.

DC motor basically consists of two main parts.

• The rotating part is called the rotor and the stationary part is also called the stator. The
rotor rotates with respect to the stator.
• The rotor consists of armature windings, the windings being electrically associated with the
commutator. The geometry of the brushes, commutator contacts, and armature windings
are such that when power is applied, the polarities of the energized winding(armature
windings) and the stator magnets are misaligned and the rotor will turn until it is very
nearly aligned with the stator’s field magnets.
ELEMENTARY DC MOTOR
DC MOTOR
DC MOTOR
Construction of a DC Motor: The essential parts of this motor include armature as well as
stator.
Stator
• A stationary part like a stator is one of the parts in DC motor parts which includes the field
windings. The main function of this is to get the supply.. When the DC is passed through
the field windings, it magnetizes poles that produce magnetic flux.
• Note: More stator poles to make the magnetic field felt by the coils as as uniform as
possible and also to increase the torque.
Armature or Rotor
• The rotor is the dynamic part of the motor that is used to create the mechanical revolutions
of the unit.
DC MOTOR
Commutator and Brushes
Commutator
• The commutator of a DC motor is a cylindrical structure that is made of copper segments stacked
together but insulated from each other.
Brushes
• Brushes using a commutator mainly work as a bridge to fix the stationary electrical circuit toward the
rotor. The brushes of a DC motor are made with graphite and carbon structure. These brushes
conduct electric current from the external circuit to the rotating commutator. Hence, the commutator
and the brush unit are concerned with transmitting the power from the static electrical circuit to the
mechanically rotating region or the rotor.
Yoke
• The yoke acts as the outer cover of a DC motor and it is also known as the frame.
Poles
• Poles in the motor include two main parts like the pole core as well as pole shoes.The poles represents
the number of permanent magnet poles for the rotating rotor and a motor with one pair of
north/south poles is called a two pole motor.
DC MOTOR
DC Motor Working:
A magnetic field arises when the field coil of the DC motor is energized. The created
magnetic field is in the direction of the radii of the armature. The magnetic field enters the
armature from the North pole side of the field coil and “exits” the armature from the field
coil’s South pole side.
The conductors located on the poles are subjected to a force of the same intensity but in the
opposite direction. These two opposing forces create a torque that causes the motor
armature to rotate.
Working principle of DC motor
The DC motor working principle is that when a current-carrying conductor is located within
the magnetic field, then it experiences a mechanical force. The magnitude and force
direction can be decided through Flemming’s left-hand rule .
If the first finger is extended, the second finger, as well as the left hand’s thumb, will be
vertical to each other & primary finger signifies the magnetic field’s direction, the next finger
signifies the current direction & the third finger-like thumb signifies the force direction which
is experienced through the conductor.
DC MOTOR
DC MOTOR
F = BIL Newtons
Where,
‘B’ is the magnetic flux density,
‘I’ is current
‘L’ is the conductor’s length in the magnetic field.
Whenever an armature winding is given a DC supply, then the flow of current will be set up within the
winding. Field winding or permanent magnets will provide the magnetic field. So, armature conductors
will experience a force because of the magnetic field . The Commutator is designed like sections to attain
uni-directional torque
DC MOTOR
• The different types of dc motors are :
Geared DC Motors:
• Geared motors tend to reduce the speed of the motor but with a corresponding increase in
torque. This property comes in handy, as DC motors can rotate at speeds much too fast for
an electronic device to makes use of. Geared motors commonly consist of a DC brush
motor and a gearbox attached to the shaft. No good robot can ever be built without gears.
Note: In robotics, torque is better than speed. With gears, it is possible to exchange the high
velocity with better torque.
Torque: A force that tends to cause rotation.
DC MOTOR
• Sometimes the objective of using a gear motor is to reduce the rotating shaft speed of a motor in
the device being driven, for example in a small electric clock where the tiny synchronous motor
may be turning at 1,200 rpm however is decreased to one rpm to drive the second hand
Types of self excited motors(supply to field winding is obtained from armature voltage):
Series and Shunt
Series DC Motor
• A Series motor is a DC series motor where field winding is connected internally in series to the
armature winding. The series motor provides high starting torque and can be used to move very
large shaft loads when it is first energized. Series motors are also known as a series-wound motor.
DC MOTOR
Shunt Motor:
Shunt motors are shunt DC motors, where the field windings shunted to or are connected in
parallel to the armature winding of the motor.
• The shunt DC motor is commonly used because of its best speed regulation. the shunt
motor has extremely low starting torque, which requires that the shaft load be quite little.
DC MOTOR
DC Compound Motors
• DC motors having both shunt and series field winding is known as
Compound DC motor.

• Separately Excited:In separately excited DC motors, the supply is given to the field and
armature windings separately.
• Permanent Magnet DC motor: (PMDC motor) is a type of DC motor that uses a
permanent magnet to create the magnetic field required for the operation of a DC motor
DC MOTORS
• Separately excited DC Motor
Stepper motor
• A stepper motor is an electromechanical device that converts electrical power into
mechanical power.
• It is a synchronous electric motor(synchronous motor: An electric motor having a speed
exactly proportional to the current frequency) that can divide a full rotation into an
expansive number of steps. A stepper motor generates discrete displacement in response to
electrical signals.
Construction & Working Principle:
• The construction of a stepper motor is fairly related to a DC motor. It includes a permanent
magnet like Rotor which is in the middle & it will turn once force acts on it. This rotor is
enclosed through a no. of the stator windings. The stator is arranged near to rotor so that
magnetic fields within the stators can control the movement of the rotor.
• The stepper motor can be controlled by energizing every stator one by one. So the stator
will magnetize & works like an electromagnetic pole which uses repulsive energy on the rotor
to move forward. The stator’s alternative magnetizing as well as demagnetizing will shift the
rotor gradually &allows it to turn through great control.
Stepper motor
• There are three types of stepper motors:
1)Variable reluctance
2)Permanent Magnet
3)Hybrid
Variable reluctance stepper motor: This type of stepper motor uses a
soft iron ferromagnetic rotor which gets attracted to the magnetic field.
Stepper motor
• By energizing one or more of the stator phases, a magnetic field is generated by the current
flowing in the coil and the rotor aligns with this field. By supplying power to different phases
in sequence, the rotor can be rotated by a specific amount to reach the desired final position.

• Below Figure shows a representation of the working principle. At the beginning, coil A is
energized and the rotor is aligned with the magnetic field it produces. When coil B is energized,
the rotor rotates in clockwise direction to align with the new magnetic field. The same happens
when coil C is energized. In the pictures, the colors of the stator teeth indicate the direction of
the magnetic field generated by the stator winding.
Stepper motor
• To achieve the motion of the rotor, it is necessary not only to energize the coils, but also to
control the direction of the current, which determines the direction of the magnetic field
generated by the coil itself .
• In stepper motors, the issue of controlling the current direction is solved with two different
approaches.
Stepper motor
• Permanent Magnet stepper motor: It consists of a permanent magnet rotor which is
diametrically magnetized. In its simplest version it consists of four coils connected as two
separate groups. Based on the coil pair energized the rotor tries to align itself with the
magnetic field . In this example the rotor rotates 90 degrees with each step.
Stepper Motor
• Hybrid Stepper Motor: It is a combination of variable reluctance and permanent magnet
stepper motor.
Stepper Motor
• The simplified version of hybrid stepper motor contains g=four coils connected
as two pairs and an axially magnetized rotor . The rotor has three teeth on
each magnetic pole. There are different number of teeth on stator and rotor
teeth to prevent them from aligning all at once. When coils are energized ,the
rotors magnets align with the stators magnetic field.
Stepper motor
• Based on how the leads from each phase winding come outside of the of the motor there
are two types of stepper motors
1)Unipolar
2)Bipolar
Bipolar: Each winding lead is brought out separately. This type of winding depending on the
voltage applied and to which lead can produce current flow in two directions. This allows
each stator pole to be either magnetized to north or south.
Stepper motor
• Allow current to flow through both directions through each winding.
• Applying voltage to lead A’ and grounding lead A generates current flow
resulting in stator polarity as shown below .
Stepper Motor
• Removing the voltage from winding A and applying a positive voltage to B’ on
winding B while driving winding B’ to ground generates current flow and
stator polarities as shown below. This continues to rotate the rotor 360
degrees.
Stepper motor
• Unipolar: Allows current flow only in half of the winding at one time. Each
winding has a center tap that is brought out of the motor along with each
winding lead.
Stepper motor
• In unipolar stepper motor the center tap is connected to a positive voltage
source in the below example. Driving one of the leads on “Winding A ” to
ground allows current to flow in one half of the winding generating a polarity
on the stator poles and the rotor rotates accordingly.
Stepper motor
Driving Techniques
Wave step mode: In this mode only one phase is energized at a time i.e each coils of the phase is energized
alternatively.

Full Step Drive: In this technique, two stators are activated at a time instead of one in a very less time period. This
technique results in high torque & allows the motor to drive the high load.
Stepper motor
Half Step Drive
This technique is fairly related to the Full step drive because the two stators will be arranged next to each other
so that it will be activated first whereas the third one will be activated after that. This kind of cycle for switching
two stators first &after that third stator will drive the motor. This technique will result in improved resolution of
the stepper motor while decreasing the torque.
Stepper motor
• The current requirement for stepper motor is little high and hence the port
pins of a microprocessor or microcontroller may not be able to drive them
directly . The supply voltage requirements vary from 5V to 24V.
• Depending on the current and voltage requirements special driving circuits are
required to interface the stepper motor with microprocessor or a
microcontroller.
Servo Motor
• A servo motor is a Self contained electrical device that rotates parts of a machine with high
efficiency and with great precision. Normally this type of motor consists of a control circuit that
provides feedback on the current position of the motor shaft. This feedback allows the servo
motors to rotate with great precision.
• If you want to rotate an object at some specific angles or distance, then you use a servo motor.
• If motor is powered by a DC power supply then it is called DC servo motor, and if it is AC-powered
motor then it is called AC servo motor.
• A servo motor usually comes with a gear arrangement that allows us to get a very high torque
servo motor in small and lightweight packages. Due to these features, they are being used in many
applications like toy car, planes, Robotics, etc.
• Servo motors are rated in kg/cm (kilogram per centimeter).Most hobby servo motors are rated at
3kg/cm or 6kg/cm or 12kg/cm. This kg/cm tells you how much weight your servo motor can lift at a
particular distance. For example: A 6kg/cm Servo motor should be able to lift 6kg if the load is
suspended 1cm away from the motors shaft, the greater the distance the lesser the weight carrying
capacity. The position of a servo motor is decided by electrical pulse and its circuitry placed beside
the motor.
Servo Motors
Servo Motor Working Mechanism
• It is a closed-loop system where it uses a feedback system to control motion and
the final position of the shaft. Here the device is controlled by a feedback signal
generated by comparing output signal and reference input signal.
• Here reference input signal is compared to the reference output signal and the third
signal is produced by the feedback system. And this third signal acts as an input
signal to the control the rotation of the motor and hence the device. This signal is
present as long as there is a difference between the reference input signal and
reference output signal.
• Typically the motor will just rotate 180 degrees but we can get smaller or
larger values.
Servo Motor
A DC servo motor is an assembly of four major components.
1. DC Motor
2. Position sensing device(Potentiometer)
3. Gear assembly
4. Control circuit
• The motor is attached by gears to the control wheel. As the motor rotates, the
potentiometer's resistance changes, so the control circuit can precisely regulate how much
movement there is and in which direction.
• When the shaft of the motor is at the desired position, power supplied to the motor is
stopped. If not, the motor is turned in the appropriate direction. The desired position is
sent via electrical pulses through the signal wire. The motor's speed is proportional to the
difference between its actual position and desired position. So if the motor is near the
desired position, it will turn slowly, otherwise it will turn fast. This is called proportional
control.
Servo Motor
• In digital control, the microcontroller is used for generating the PWM
pluses to produce more accurate control signals in order to decide the
direction of rotation .
 DC SERVO MOTOR CONSTRUCTION

DC MOTOR
ROTOR PART AND SHAFT
GEAR SYSTEM

POTENTIOMETER
DC MOTOR
STATOR PART

-
MOTOR PULSE SIGNAL
DRIVER + TO VOLTAGE CONTROL SIGNAL
CONVERTER

COMPARATOR
Servo Motor
• The position sensor provides a feedback signal corresponding to the
present position of the load. This sensor is normally a potentiometer that
produces the voltage corresponding to the absolute angle of the motor
shaft through gear mechanism. Then the feedback voltage value is
applied on the input of the comparator
• The comparator then compares the voltage related to current position of the motor with
desired voltage related to desired position of the motor and produces an error voltage
which is then given to a motor driver.
• The motor driver then controls the rotation of the DC MOTOR. This rotation causes the
gears to rotate.
Servo Motor
• Working Principle: Servo motor works on PWM (Pulse width modulation) principle, meaning its
angle of rotation is controlled by the duration of applied pulse . The servo motor expects to see a
pulse every 20 milliseconds (ms) and the length of the pulse will determine how far the motor turns.
For example, a 1.5ms pulse will make the motor turn to the 90° position. Shorter than 1.5ms moves it
in the counter clockwise direction toward the 0° position, and any longer than 1.5ms will turn the
servo in a clockwise direction toward the 180° position.

Fig:Variable Pulse width to control servo position

Gears
• A gear is a toothed cylindrical or roller shape component of a machine which meshes with
another toothed cylindrical component to transmit power from one shaft to another. It is
mainly used to obtain different torque and speed ratio or changing the direction of driving
shaft and driven shaft.
• Low gear has low speed and high torque where as high gear has high speed and low torque.
• Torque is the measurement of force which cause something to rotate around a point.
Torque=Force x Length
Gears
• If we were to connect two gears and rotate one of them ,then the other gear
would also rotate. If we attach an engine to the first gear , the first gear is
driver gear and the gear attached to the first gear is called the driven gear.
Gears
• The gear ratio is given as the ratio of no. of teeth of the driven gear and no. of teeth of the
driver gear .

• When we have two gears with the same diameter, the gear ratio will be 1.(That means
every time the driver gear completes one full rotation, the driven gear also completes one
rotation and hence driven gear has the same speed as that of the driver gear.)
Gears
Gears
Gears
• It is important to note that:
Gears
• In order to make the output rotate in the same direction as the input gear we need to insert
an other gear in between input and output gears that creates a gear train. Middle gear is
known as idler gear.

• We can add many gears to change the speed and output direction. But this will consume a lot
of space.
Gears
• Instead we can mount gears on same axis and create a compound gear train . This will do
the same job as gear train but it will occupy far less space.

• Calculation of RPM and torque of simple gear trains:

• Here ratio indicates the gear ratio which is = Teeth of output gear/teeth of input gear
Gears
• Example
Gears
Gears
• Let us now consider the example of compound gear train:
Types of Gears
Types of Gears:
• Gears can be classified in various types according to construction of teeth, Use, the direction of motion
transfer etc. but basically it is classified according to design of teeth.
1. Spur Gear:
• These gears are used to transmit the power in same plane or when the driving and driven shafts are
parallel to each other. In this type of gear teeth are cut parallel to the axis of the shafts so when is meshes
with another spur gear it transmit the power in parallel shaft and when it connects with the helical gear it
will transmit power at an angle from the driving axis.
Types of Gears
2. Helical Gear:
• On the helical gears teeth are cut at an angle from the axis of it. It has cylindrical roller with helicoid teeth.
The main advantage of helical gears is that they work with less noise and vibration because the load is
distributed on the full helix as compared to spur gears. It also has less wear and tear due to which they are
widely used in industries. It also used for transmit power in parallel shaft but sometime they are used to
transmit power in non-parallel shaft also. In the helical gears if the pinion (driving gear) is cut with right
handed teeth then the gear (driven gear) is cut with left handed of in opposite direction.
Types of Gears
3. Double Helical or Herringbone Gear:
• This gear has both right and left handed teeth on one gear. This gear is use to provide
additional shear area on gear which further required for higher torque transmission.
This is same as helical.

4. Bevel Gear:
• This gear is used to transmit power between perpendiculars. The driving shaft and
driven shaft makes a right angle with each other and both the axis of shaft meets each
other at one point. This gear has helical or spiral teeth on a conical shaped geometry and
meshes with the same gear.
Types of Gears

5. Rack and Pinion Gear:

• This gear is used in steering system of automobile. In this type of gear, teeth are cut
on a straight rectilinear geometry know as rack and one spur gear known as pinion.
This is used to transmit rotary motion to linear motion. It is seen as the infinite radius
driven gear.
Types of Gears
6. Worm Gear:
• This type of gear is used to transmit the power in nonintersecting shaft
which makes right angle. In this type of arrangement the driving gear is a
screw gear and the driven gear is helical gear, spur gear or gear with spiral teeth
as shown in figure.
Robotic Sensors
• Sensors are used in robotic systems for a variety of functions . The most
common use of sensors is to provide information about the status of links
and joints of the manipulator as well as the working environment of the
robot.
• Based on the functions the sensors in robots can be grouped into five basic
categories:
1) Status sensors
2) Environment sensors
3) Quality control sensors
4) Safety sensors
5) Work cell control sensors
Robotic Sensors
• Status sensors: The primary use of these sensors on a robot is to sense position , velocity,
acceleration, torque/force at each joint of the manipulator for position and motion
control. These sensors form an essential part of the internal closed loop control systems
and are called as internal/status sensors . Internal sensors give feedback on the status of the
manipulator itself . The degree and accuracy that can be achieved by a manipulator
depends on the resolution and accuracy of the internal sensors.
• Environment sensors: These sensors extract features of the objects in the work cell or
surrounding environment of the robot. This knowledge is utilized by the computer controller
to modify or adapt to a given situation. For example if the robot has to process several types
of different parts each requiring a different sequence of actions by the robot such as
adjusting the gripper orientation or applying exact gripper force it must determine the
required parameters for each part. Sensors for these functions are generally placed in the
environment external to the manipulator and are called environment sensors.
Robotic Sensors
• Environment sensors can be used to perform one or more of the following functions:
Detect presence of workpiece
Determination of position or orientation of workpiece present in the work cell
Workpiece identification
Determination of workpiece properties such as shape, size, and so on.
Provide information about the manipulator-environment interaction forces and torques.
Provide information about environment variables such as temperature, humidity and so
on.
An important sensing method is the vision system that might be employed to determine
characteristics such as location, orientation ,shape , size and many other properties.
Robotic Sensors
• Quality Control Sensors: Inspection and quality control is an important function for
robotic sensors. The external sensors used for environmental feedback can be used for
detecting faults and failures in the finished product. Computer vision, ultrasonic sensors
can be used for inspection.

• Safety Sensors: An important function of the sensors in robotics is safety and hazard
monitoring. The safety of the workers and other equipment in the work environment and
that of the manipulator are important concerns . For example, if there is a power failure all
the links of the manipulator may fall to zero gravity position instantaneously.
They may injure the humans in the vicinity or may damage the equipment of manipulator
itself . A solution is to sense power failure and apply breaks to prevent the uncontrolled falling
of links due to gravity.
Robotic Sensors
• Work cell control sensors: Another major use of sensors in robotics is to implement
interlocks in work cycle. An interlock in the work cycle is a situation that requires
sequencing of tasks such that completion of a task must be ensured before proceeding to
the next task. For example , a part must arrive on the conveyor before the gripper of the
manipulator can pick it. This kind of verification of interlocked tasks can be done by
incorporating signals from a variety of sensors in the robot program.
• The signals from all the sensors on the manipulator and in the environment are fed to the
computer controller which analyzes them and generate the control signals. The control
signals are applied to the actuators to command and control the manipulator.
Robotic Sensors
• Common sensors used for robotic applications are
1. touch/tactile sensors in the contact type
2. Proximity(to detect presence of an object),Range and physical property
sensors in the non contact type.
• Rotation sensors are important in robotics to keep track of joint rotations and
motion of end effector.
• Proximity and touch sensors are used in intelligent grasping of work piece and
force-torque sensors provide feedback for object manipulation and control of
its interaction with environment. For example these sensors can be useful to
prevent slipping or damage of the object once grasped or to apply the right
torque to tighten a nut.
Robotic Sensors
• Acoustic sensors are commonly used for proximity , distance measuring or navigation
applications (indoor navigation).
• Optic or light based sensors are non contact sensors that work on the principle of detecting
the change in the intensity of light sent and received. Optic sensors include infrared,
Ultraviolet, and laser beam sensors. An infrared sensor based tracking system allows a full
3D-tracking within a space of few meters. Laser based scanning sensors can be used in
navigation of autonomous guided vehicles.
Note : Infrared sensors detect the motion of an object within a region.
• Pneumatic sensors : Pneumatic sensors can be contactless devices or contact sensors which
can be used as proximity sensors , pressure or force sensors.
• Force/Torque sensors : Force/Torque sensors are used to measure the joint torques . The
interaction between robot and environment generates forces/torques that must be
controlled to preserve the integrity of the task being performed. To measure these
interaction forces, sensors are mounted between wrist and end effector and are known as
wrist force torque sensors(WFTS).
Robotic Sensors
• Optical Encoders : For position sensing in robotics optical encoders are
frequently used . Optical encoders covert linear or angular displacement into
digital code or pulse signals.
• Optical encoders are of two types:
• Absolute encoders : They provide actual position relative to a fixed refernce
position.
• Incremental encoders : These sense the position from the previous position.
Applications
Industrial Applications:
• OF the robots in the world 90% are found in industries. These robots are
referred to as industrial robots . Of these 50% are used in automotive
industries.
• Some of the tasks that robots can do in industries are:
Handling Dangerous materials
Assembling Products
Spray finishing
Polishing and cutting
Repetitive , backbreaking and unrewarding tasks
Tasks involving danger to humans or dangerous tasks
Applications
• Robotic applications in the industries today are primarily in four fields:
1. Material Handling: Operations involving picking the material , workpiece or tool from one
place and placing it at the desired place are the material handling operations . These
include material transfer and machine loading/unloading . Common material handling
applications are in hazardous environment of foundry, die casting, plastic moulding and
handling dangerous materials . The end effector for these applications is a suitable gripper
to hold the material that may be radio-active or red-hot material.
2. Operations: Operations which current day robots perform are: arc welding, spot welding,
spray painting etc.
3. Assembly : Assembly robots are common within manufacturing environment . They are
capable of performing mundane and repetitive tasks with ease . An automotive factory is a
great example of an industry that utilizes robotic assemblers.
4. Inspection: Inspection function is required in every stage of manufacturing from raw
materials to finished products. Robots can be used to inspect physical dimensions, surface
finish and other characteristics of raw materials, intermediate stages of parts , finished
parts or finished products.
Pharmaceuticals: packing drugs in boxes, stacking boxes , loading products in trays
Textile :Fabric printing and drawing, fabric printing, complex sewing
Chemical Industry: Operate in dangerous areas, Handling toxic materials
Mining industry: Laying explosives, excavation
Construction industry : Surveillance and inspection, Evaluation of progress of projects, Early detection of possible errors
Energy sector: For repairing pipelines and turbines and other infrastructure
Applications
Non Industrial Applications: The advances in robotic technology are not directed only for its use in industries .
There has been a parallel growth of robotic technology in non-industrial environments. Different applications of
robots in some diverse segments are :
Software used for robot programming(https://www.automate.org/news/9-types-of-
robotics-software-you-might-consider-for-your-robot)

• A “robotics software platform” is a software package which simplifies programming of

several kinds of robotic devices by providing
• a unified programming environment;
• a set of reusable components;
• a debugging/simulation environment;
• a package of “drivers” for most wide-spread robotics hardware
• a package of common facilities such as computer vision, navigation or robotic arm
control
Software used for robot
programming
1.Offline Programming
• RoboDK , offline programming software provides a way for you to program your industrial robot without
needing to be physically connected to the robot at the time. This means that you don’t need to take the
robot out of production to program it. It reduces downtime, improves the quality of programming, and
allows you to change between product lines quickly, amongst other benefits.
2. Simulators
Robot simulators come in many forms. Some only allow for simple 2D simulation of specific aspects of robotics
whilst others include 3D simulation with complex physics engines and realistic environments.
• As well as being an offline programming tool, RoboDK is also a great simulator. It is simple enough to allow
you to easily program your robot whilst being powerful enough to handle many different use cases.
3. Middleware:
Middleware is the “software glue” that helps robot builders to avoid reinventing the wheel when they are
designing a new robotic system. Robot middleware provides a framework for running and managing complex
robotic systems from a single unified interface. If you were building your own robotic system with multiple
components or looking to coordinate multiple robots, you might use middleware .
Software used for robot
programming
4. Mobile Robot Planning : Mobile robots are programmed in a different way from other robots which means
using a different type of software too. For example, path planners are used to program the route that the robot
will take through the environment while obstacle avoidance algorithms react to changes in the moment . Eg:
Mobile planner software.
5. Real-Time Path Planning
Path planning software is used in many areas of robotics. Basic path planners, are simply used to speed up the
programming phase for industrial robotics. Real-time path planning is much more complex and is based on
teaching–learning-based optimization (TLBO) USING AI.
6. UAV (Drone) Control
A growing type of robotic software is drone control. This refers to any software which is used to program and
coordinate unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs/drones). DroneDeploy, PIX4D are examples of software used in
drone control
(https://surveyinggroup.com/top-5-drone-mapping-softwares-that-you-will-need-on-your-project)
Software used for robot
programming
7. Artificial Intelligence for Robots
• Artificial intelligence (AI) has been used with robotics for many years — almost as long as robotics have
been around. However, there has recently been a rising number of software solutions specifically for
using AI with robots in particular application areas. AI tends to be focused on specific aspects of
applications, such as analyzing images collected in agricultural settings, filtering operational data in
manufacturing environments, or coordinating swarms of mobile robots in logistics.
• https://www.infoq.com/news/2019/10/ros-smarter-hospitals-robotics/
Software used for robot
programming
• Programming languages used in Robotics:
Pascal is one of the first programming Languages which is the basis for several of the
industrial robot languages.
Scratch a visual programming language is another popular programming language for
complete beginners as scratch programming is achieved by dragging around blocks and
connecting them together.
LISP is the world’s second oldest programming language . Part of ROS(Robotic Operating
System) are written in LISP and Prolog is a logical programming language used in AI.
Hardware Description languages(HDLs) are used to program electronic Hardware without
having to actually manufacture the silicon chip.(This language can be used in creating
robotic electronics prototypes ).
MATLAB can be used for analysing data and developing control systems(Robotics toolbox is
also available for MATLAB).
Software used for robot
programming
 C# is the primary programming language of Microsoft Robotics Developer
Studio
Java is quite popular in some parts of robotics . It is one of the core languages
of several modern AI including IBM’S Watson.
Python is a popular language in robotics because of its ease of use and also is
one of the programming languages used in ROS.
C/C++ are require languages in robotics because a lot of hardware libraries
used in robotics use one of these programming languages . These libraries
allow interaction with low level hardware.
Note: ROS is an open source middle wear suite containing a set of software
frameworks for robot software development