2018 Fourth International Conference on Research in Computational Intelligence and Communication Networks (ICRCICN)

Mimicking Robotic Arm

Gargi Saha Srijita Das Ankita Ghosh
Department of AEIE Department of AEIE Department of AEIE
Techno International, Newtown Techno International, Newtown Techno International, Newtown
Kolkata, India Kolkata, India Kolkata, India
gargisaha2011@gmail.com dsrijita0@gmail.com ghoshankita255sonu@gmail.com

Jit Rakshit Kamal Hasan Anuj Deb Roy

Department of AEIE Department of AEIE Department of AEIE
Techno International, Newtown Techno International, Newtown Techno International, Newtown
Kolkata, India Kolkata, India Kolkata, India
jitrksht@gmail.com kamalhasan947@gmail.com anujdebroyadr@gmail.com

Nantu Das Avishek Paul*

Department of AEIE Department of AEIE
Techno International, Newtown RCC Institute of Information Technology
Kolkata, India Kolkata, India
dasnantu31@gmail.com avishek.paul@rcciit.org

Abstract— A robotic arm can perform the task of a human
arm with certain accuracy where human intervention is a
challenge. The current paper depicts a design and execution
process of a mechanical arm using Arduino-UNO which mimics
the motion of human arm [1]. Human Machine Interface is used
for robots using DIY “Bend Sensors”, also known as “Flex
Sensors” which works on the basis of actual muscular
movements. The set up involves actual interfacing of a human
limb with the robotic arm which makes maneuvering the robot
more accurately.
The manipulator links creates a kinematic chain [5]. The
kinematic chain is known as the end effectors which is similar
to human hand. Per formation of end effectors involves task
likes welding, spinning, gripping etc., depending on the
application [6].
II. UNITS

Keywords—Arduino-UNO, Human Machine Interface, Flex TABLE I: COMPONENTS USED

Sensors, Robotic Arm.
S.N. Components Specifications Quantity
I. INTRODUCTION 1. Power Source 12V-1A;5V-2A 1; 4
2. Arduino UNO 2
3. Self made Flex 2’2 6
Robot is an intelligent and automatic system which Sensors
executes task automatically or remotely operator controlled [2]. 4. Gyroscope MPU 6050 1
Robots are self-governing, semi autonomous or controlled by 5. Servo Motors SG90; MG995 5; 3
an operator. Robots are used for household applications,
cleaning sewerage system, manufacturing industry, packaging The units used in this set up are:
industry, unscientific tasks which are expensive and dangerous
for execution by humans, and exploring new things. • Volts (V) for electrical voltage.
• Ampere (A) for current sources.
The robotic arm is designed using Arduino-UNO which • Ohms (!) for load connected.
uses the ATMEGA–328 microcontroller. The working
• Farad (F) for Capacitance.
principle involves interfacing potentiometers and motors
achieved by using Arduino board. Self-made bend sensors and
the servo motors are connected with the robotic arm [3]. The
self-made bend sensors convert mechanical movement into III. COMPONENTS
electrical output. Hence, the motion of the remote causes the Several components used in the set up are given in the
self-made bend sensors to bend producing the electrical pulses TABLE 1 below:
[4]. Microcontroller converts the signals received from the
potentiometers and generate requisite digital pulses for
actuating the servomotors. The motors rotate as per the pulses • Power Source: In our set up, we are using two types of
and thus the movement of the arm is achieved. In short, the power sources- one for powering the development Board
micro controller interfaces all the components. and the other one for giving sufficient power to the Servo
Motors.
A robotic arm is a programmable or remote controlled,
with functions close to a human arm. Rotational motion and /
or translational (linear) motion is achieved through link joints.

978-1-5386-7638-7/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE

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• Arduino UNO Development Board: Arduino UNO is a
development board based on ATmega328 microcontroller.
The board is equipped with sets of digital and analog input
and output pins that may be interfaced to several hardware.
The Arduino development board is programmable with the
Arduino IDE through USB cable. Arduino boards are able
to read the inputs from sensors, switches, or a message -
and generate an output signal for activating a motor,
turning on LED, etc. This can be achieved by the Arduino
programming language.
• Self-made Flex Sensors: A flex sensor measures the
change of resistance with bending. This is a variable
resistive type flex sensor. The resistance of the sensor is
proportional to the bending component.
• Gyroscope: A gyroscope is a device which is used for Fig.. 1. Block representation of the project
measuring the angular velocity and orientation. For this
project we use MPU 6050 i.e. an accelerometer and V. FLOWCHART
gyroscope which detects the motion of the object. The flowchart of the set up is given below in Fig. 2
• Servo Motors: Servo motor is an actuator that controls the
angular position precisely. It is coupled with a sensor in
order to achieve position feedback. A servo drive is
required to complete the system. For closed-loop system,
servo motors provide a high performance using stepper
motor and AC induction motors.
IV. BLOCK DIAGRAM
The block representation is given below in Fig. 1. The
central processor, Arduino – UNO is interfaced with gyroscope
and flex sensors as input module and servo motors as output
module. A 12 V and 5V DC power supply is capable of
running the entire system. The output of gyroscope sensor and
flex sensor provide the position and orientation of the arm at
any instant of time which is the input data for the processor.
The processor’s output is fed to the servo motors for proper
directional movement of their assembly in order to achieving
the desired position for executing a particular job. A
continuous feedback mechanism provides almost accurate
positioning and allied movements. Fig. 2. Flowchart of the working

The Robotic Arm works on the principle of “Shadow VI. METHODOLOGY

Movement” where the robot imitates the exact movements of
the person (in this case, it’s just the arm). The movement is
sensed through self-made bend sensors which are fitted on a
glove which is being worn by the person and the servo motors
act as actuators for the moving parts of the robotic arm [7]. The
bend sensors convert the physical motion into electrical signal
which energize the actuators to produce mechanical motion.
Hence, movements of the bend sensors produce the electrical
pulses which are fed to the Arduino board through
potentiometers [8]. The processor process the signals received
and convert them into requisite pulses which are the input to
the servomotors and required movement is generated which is
the replication of the person’s actual arm movement [9].
The flex sensors are designed using Aluminium foil which
can conduct electric current when in contact. The mechanism
of the self made flex sensors lie in the change in resistance of
the material due to movement or rotation. When the fingers
are stretched, there is no contact between the foils and the
resistance of the foil is high. The resistance becomes low
when the fingers are in bend position and contact is
established between the foil sensor. Thus a current is drawn
from the source when the fingers are in bend position which
has been coined as a sensing parameter for movement
detection and control. The change in current creates a voltage
drop across the foil which has been coined as the sensor
output. The voltage is taken as a controlling element for
adjusting the rotation of the different servo motors for precise
movement of the robotic arm. The processor or the
microcontroller has been programmed in order to map the
rotational motional of the flex sensors with the necessary
current required for the exact rotation of the motors. Five

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servo motors (SG 90) have been used for five finger experiment of finger movement for 10 to 15 times two fingers
movement corresponding to five aluminium foil sensor. of robotic arm are mal functioning. It is resolved after few
minutes resting condition of flex sensor. Accuracy of arm and
After successful testing of the finger movement using the solder movement is very good but for fingers movement the
foil sensors, resistive flex sensors available in the market have accuracy is moderate.
been used for increasing the precision, accuracy and lifetime
of the assembly. Five flex sensors replaced the five aluminium Four images of the actual designed robotic arm in different
foils. A fine leather glove is being used where these five flex conditions are given in Fig. 3, 4, 5 & 6 below:
sensors were fitted and electrical connections were established
using very low resistance flexible connectors. When the glove
is being worn by a person, bending or movement of the
individual flex sensor is caused due to the actual movement of
the human arm. Dedicated channels are provided for sensing
and acquiring the data for five different flex sensors
simultaneously.
The accelerometer-gyroscope assembly gives the speed of
the hand movement which is another parameter being sensed
by the system. Since the entire arm is to be replicated,
attention needs to be given for the wrist, elbow and shoulder
movements apart from the finger movements. In order to
mimic the wrist, arm and shoulder movements, three
gyroscope sensors have been used for generating the electrical
output analogous to the position and orientation while three
additional servo motors (MG995) have been used for
performing the desired position attainment of the robotic arm
according to the control signal generated by the Fig. 3. Fingers open condition
microcontroller. Each and individual motors are being driven
through motor drivers in usual technique. Thus both the
position and orientation can be controlled for the designed
arm.
The scheme of clockwise and anticlockwise rotation of the
servo motors is controlled by the microcontroller depending
upon the magnitude and polarity of the signal received from
the various flex sensors attached to the glove. The controlling
signal fed to the motors is a pulse waveform which is generated
by the microcontroller. During the experimentation stage, it
was noticed that the time taken by the servo motors to rotate
through the total span of the flex sensors is roughly equal to
five seconds. The training phase was repeated twenty number
of times in order to have an estimate of the time. In the
software programming, this time interval was used as a
yardstick for detecting any change or resting condition of the
arm. The threshold value of voltage was determined from the
step angle and he maximum operating voltage of the servo
motors. For any sensed output voltage of flex sensor, the Fig. 4. Fingers Closed with Bend Elbow
conversion factor is determined and the time of delay is
calculated. During this obtained time interval, the
corresponding pin of the microcontroller is set in HIGH logic.
Once the time interval is counted, the status of the pin is set to
LOW logic and the power is disconnected from the motor. This
ensures proper rotation of the designed arm by the specific
angle.
VII. RESULT
It has been observed that the robotic arm mimics our arm to
certain efficiency. The line noise received in the system is
caused by the Servo Motors. The noise is eliminated to a
certain extent by averaging out the values of 80 readings at
9600 Baud Rate because it has 104 millisecond of Bit Rate and
1.04 millisecond of rate per character. A continuous

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Fig. 5. Fingers open with noise & bend elbow
Fig. 6. Fingers closed with arm straight
VIII. DISCUSSION
In our work, we faced a certain number of difficulties. They
are as follows:
1. Our idea was to make a DIY Mimicking Robotic Arm. So
we resorted to make our own Flex Sensors. The main
problem of the DIY Flex Sensor was that they worked
perfectly for about 10 to 15 times, giving a constant value
after which the values started fluctuating and thus were
discarded from our set up. They were brittle in nature as
well.
2. The Flex Sensors used in our set up was made for
prototyping and as a result they also showed deviation in
values by a small margin after using them for a certain
number of times. Thus they created problems for us which
demanded frequent calibration of the system.
3. The Servo Motors used in the set up are Hobby Servo
Motors which created a line noise, thereby causing an
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insertion noise within the system. This was minimized to a
great extent by averaging the values. However, the noise
was not eliminated completely. This could however be
removed by using a proper industrial servo motor.
4. The mechanical error also took place in the system which
was caused due to the use of unprofessional and hobby
products in the various parts of the system. However the
use of 3D printed materials and more accurate parts could
solve the problems easily.
5. The major problem arose in our set up was monetary issue
regarding the cost of the products and also the
unavailability of certain products.
6. The weight of the entire system was a big challenge for the
authors since the motors used (MG995) had a specific
range of operation. Care had to be taken so that the overall
weight was kept as low as possible. In spite of this, one of
the finger showed malfunctioning when the arm was in
bending condition. All the fingers showed satisfactory
result during the stretched condition of the arm.
7. Although the initial set up and experimentation were
carried out by using Aluminium foil with satisfactory
performance, they were replaced by five resistive type flex
sensors in order to achieve greater accuracy and higher
range of process parameter. The life span of the flex
sensor is much more compared to that of aluminium foil
and can be easily fitted on the glove without any
deformation.
8. Continuous supply of power is one more challenge for this
set up due to the addition in the overall weight on
introduction of a battery. Normal batteries would not be
beneficial because the power requirement is quite a
considerable amount due to the presence of eight servo
motors along with other accessories. A rechargeable
battery would have been apt for this situation, but its
alignment or fixation is also a tough task due to the mobile
nature of the designed arm apart from its weight issue.
9. Materials like IMPC (Ionic Polymer metal Composite)
could have been used instead of normal resistive flex
sensors in order to achieve greater precision and accuracy.
The most challenging part in using IMPC material was its
very high cost, which was a concern during the design of
this system. Our aim was to design a arm at minimum
possible financial investment taking into consideration the
future application area involving day to day use and
common public viability.
IX. FUTURE SCOPES
This set up is built with wired connection. It can be
designed to work wirelessly, allowing user to maneuver easily.
Currently the signals from flex and gyroscope sensors are
being processed using Arduino-UNO development board. This
could be enhanced by using a faster Controller such as
Raspberry-Pi, etc. Some faster and more advanced
microprocessors can be used.
 Some of the very important future implications of our set movement is quite close to what the human hand can achieve
up are discussed below: and a suitable filter system attached to the servos can limit the
error. This method of mimicking robotic arm control is
A. In medical field: expected to aid in overcoming the problem like placing an
It can perform Medical Procedures by mimicking the object (hazardous object, heaver object or very tiny object).
doctors at distant places. Using robots in medical field has
already started worldwide. Different kind of robots can be ACKNOWLEDGMENT
developed with specialized medical field, which can be The authors acknowledge the support from all who have
mimicking type or self-control type. Wireless camera will contributed directly or indirectly to this work. Authors also
modified our set up as futuristic. This robotic arm takes thank all faculty members and colleagues for their help and
care of patient in absence of specialist doctor. support extended to us.
B. Implementation of machine learning:
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some additional features can be added to the existing
system. These features include some display in form of
LCD panel, audio speaker along with a web camera. The
web camera will be able to control the arm even from a
few kilometers apart with certain accuracy,
communicating through a built-in wireless network.
Audio system can help in better performance by
communicating with the operators in a local language
while the LCD panel will display the current execution
sequence which might help in proper diagnosis during any
malfunctioning of the system. Moreover it can guide an
unknown user through the set up and execution procedure
which will be much more effective compared to a
conventional user manual.
X. CONCLUSION
The objective of this project have been partially achieved
by designing the hardware connection and programming for a
sensor based robotic arm which mimics the movement of an
actual human arm with various degrees of freedom. From the
results and observations recorded, it shows the movement is
not truly precise because of some reverse line current that is
being generated due to the motion of servos. Nevertheless, its

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