Integración en PCB de la electrónica del Scorbot-ER V+. Diseño de algoritmos de control.

Abstract

This project consists in the development of a Printed Circuit Board (PCB) that can perform the functions of the control electronics for the robot manipulator arms placed at the Robotics Laboratory of the Applied Sciences and Systems Department of the University of La Laguna. Nowadays, in the Robotics laboratory, there is a design of the of the electronic of control of the robotic arm called ’Scorbot-ER V+’. This design is an alternative design of the electronic control circuit provided by the producer of the robotic arm. The design has been implemented and tested using some ’protoboards’ and it is the result of a final degree project of the course of 2018-2019 called ’Implementation of the electronic for the dynamic control of a ScorbotER manipulator ’. The project was developed by two mates called Ana Est´evez P´erez and Carlos Javier Siverio Su´arez. This new design has the advantage of allowing a very fast communication with the robot because it does not use the serial communication. Our final degree project (developed by Oscar Jes´us D´ıaz de la Fe and Cris- ´ tian Francisco Fari˜na Meli´an) consists of integrating this alternative design of the electronic of control for the robotic arm ’Scorbot-ER V+’ in a printed circuit board to improve its features and gives the design a more compact, professional and aesthetic appearance. In fact, this implementation has the final objective of substitute the actual electronic of control of the ’Scorbot-ER V+’ in a future. Also, the project consists of the testing of the design of the electronic and the software that allows the control of the movements of the manipulator and improve it in case it was possible. Besides, another part of the project is the developed of an interface to join the new electronic of control to the robotic arm ’Scorbot-ER IX’. In the Robotics Laboratory of the Applied Sciences and Systems Department there are two types of manipulators, it would be interesting that the new electronic design could work with both kinds of robotic arms and not only with the ’Scorbot-ER V+’. Due to this, one part of our project is related to find a method to connect the new electronic of control to the ’Scorbot-ER IX’, that has a similar structure and way of functioning than the other one. On the other hand, the manipulator needs a new alarm system to work in the correct way without problems of developing elevated voltages and currents that could damage the manipulator itself. This is the reason why another part of our project is orientated to create an alarm system for the robotic arm. This alarm system is studied in two ways. First way is from a hardware point of view and it is related to develop some electronic circuits to protect the manipulator in the case of working in an incorrect way. Second way is from a software point of view and it has the objective of changing the current functional program of the manipulator, so this can take into account the possible failures that can occur during the work of the robotic arm. Also, another part of the project is related to study and implementation of some new control systems in the manipulator that improve the current ones. In this moment, the only module of control that is implemented in the robotic arm is the PID (Proportional Integral Derivative). This is the most extended and common control system that can be implemented in a manipulator, but this is not the most efficient for this type of devices. In this project, it is proposed to implement a PID with gravity compensation control scheme. It is a better option to manage the control of a robotic because it is a specific control scheme for manipulators that takes into account the gravity effects on the robot dynamics, avoiding the PID to do this task of control. Finally, the last part of the work is about improving the current instruction set for the manipulator controller. This program is divided in two parts and is programmed in ’C’ and ’Python’ respectively. Some of the typical functions of a manipulator have been left out in the current program and other instructions are not programmed in the correct way, so one part of the project is oriented to complete and improve this program.