Robot Kinematics Capstone

Skills: MATLAB, Kinematics

For our final capstone project for Robot Kinematics and Dynamics, we had to develop code for a predefined robot configuration which, when given tuned waypoints, would allow it to insert, traverse, and remove an end effector from a path in a game of Operation.

In the Final Capstone Competition, I placed first out of over 50 students in the class.

The following slides present my code running on the robot through each of the previous tracks given over the course of the Capstone Project, as well as through the final competition track after being fully tuned. Just like in the game of Operation, the goal was to run the end effector through the course without touching the sides of the track, afterwards which we would optimize the robot for speed while retaining performance.

This was my code running on the robot on the day of the competition. Each student was given 10 minutes to determine and implement waypoints for a brand new, previously unknown track, as well as tune the waypoints to reduce collisions with the track.

Denavit-Hartenberg parameters were used as the standard when calculating the Forward Kinematics for the Capstone Robot, which were then used to determine the position of the end effector given the angles of the modules. Inverse Kinematics were applied to determine the joint angles when given a waypoint with xyz coordinates in the world frame, and Gravity Compensation was implemented with the use of Jacobians within the code. All of these concepts were implemented within the code for the Capstone Project as a culmination of the entire semester.