Development of a robotic arm suitable for demonstration of advanced control methods

Our article deals with the development of a robotic arm with “open control system” (for this particular application - with two degrees of freedom and possibility to add). The open control system allows, together with the known parameters of our robotic arm, to use advanced control methods. The robotic arm is controlled by a PLC and automatically generated code via tools - BR Target for Simulink. This tool allows us to convert Simulink models into an automatically generated code in C/C++ and its direct implementation on PLCs. This method of a design allows an easy implementation for sophisticated simulation models and control structures. The article focuses on the preparation and evaluation of the properties of a robotic arm for implementation possibilities of advanced control methods. At first, we found the physical limitations of the individual actuators. Then we dealt with the problems of generating the trajectory with respect to the physical limitations of the individual actuators. For the dynamics of the robotic arm spline functions for trajectory generation and performed measurements of lag errors are used. In conclusion, we evaluated the advantages and disadvantages of this method of control and outlined possible applications for which we can apply this kind of control.