Simulation tool for teaching and learning 3D kinematics workspaces of serial robotic arms with up to 5‐DOF

Abstract

Abstract This work develops a new educational simulation tool whose objective is to make attractive and practical teaching and learning in kinematics of serial robotic arms. At engineering laboratories in which practices with robotic arms are necessary for understanding fundamental concepts of theory, students need to accomplish a complete study attending to different aspects related with kinematics. Its graphic user interface (GUI) is a straight‐forward and easy‐to‐follow Denavit–Hartenberg (DH)‐based method which helps at engineering practices without requiring a programming knowledge. We develop, in a theoretical way, both forward (FK) and inverse kinematics (IK), which are necessary to demonstrate the study of an educational robotic arm as a practical case. The interactive simulation tool allows defining DH parameters and geometry in serial arms with up to 5 degrees of freedom (DOF). Thus, the interest of this work lies in an innovative graphic environment which teaching professionals can use to study DH convention, observe the movement of serial robotic manipulators and map both forward and joint workspaces in a visual manner. This process is much simpler that interpreting the results in an analytic way. Furthermore, the generic capabilities of this simulation tool allow comparing different robot arm configurations (considering its physical parameters and mechanical characteristics previously known), both if robotic arms are physically available or not in lab. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Comput Appl Eng Educ 20: 750–761, 2012