Design and Manual Control of a 3 Degrees of Freedom Social Robotic Manipulator

Nowadays, we have invited social robots to our daily lives. As such, we need to have a good understanding of this class of robots. This paper explores the characteristics, applications and common design considerations of social robotics in general, and presents a social robotic manipulator in detail. The robot is manually controlled to present a flower to those who show an expression of happiness, aiming to encourage positive attitudes in our modern societies. The mechanical and electrical design of the robotic manipulator for its social aspects have been investigated. Moreover, a method of manual control using joysticks has been deployed on the designed manipulator.