Development

This is the robotic arm with a modified 'forearm'. This allows the arm to cover a greater workspace, it is now possible for a straight line to be drawn between each point.

Development

This is a modified workspace for an arm with a shorter second link. A diagram of the pentagtram is superimposed to demonstrate that it can be followed by the arm.

Testing

Here is a trial run of our initial LabVIEW program with the motors at 15% of their maximum power. As can be seen, an acceleration profile will be required at a higher motor percentage because the inertia of the arm would become too great. This would result in the motors over- or under-counting. Especially when carrying a 1kg mass.

Testing

This is our initial run with a simple version of the LabVIEW program installed in the cRio. So far the program is designed just so that the end point of the arm reaches all five points on a pentagon, when it is finished it will follow the shape of a pentagram. At this stage we still need to write an acceleration profile so that the motors can be powered up to a higher speed.

Flowchart

This is a simple flow chart which was used to aid building of the LabVIEW program.

Programming

Working hard on the LabVIEW program.

Calculations

These are the angles we calculated for both joints of the arm to enable the end point to achieve all five positions on the pentagram. The expressions for beta and alpha determine the total angle which must be completed by each link for each step.