Dynamic Model and Motion Control of a Robotic Manipulator

This paper presents the dynamic modeling and motion control of a three-link rotary robotic manipulator, also known as an RRR robot. The Kinect motion capture system by Microsoft is used in conjunction with the manipulator. A camera is used to capture the motion of a user’s arm and tracks certain angles made by parts of the arm. We consider a pinhole camera model to generate reference angles in our simulations. These desired angles are fed into the controller and are used by the RRR robot in an effort to copy the movement of the user. A proportional-derivative (PD) controller is developed and applied to the manipulator for improved trajectory tracking. The RRR robot is dynamically modeled and the results of the proposed control strategy demonstrate good trajectory following. Researchers can implement this system as a relatively inexpensive starting point for their activities.