BACKGROUND

In recent years, intelligent robots have been developed in

more diverse applications involving service providing,
elderly cares, surgery aides, home cares, military industry,
entertainment, education, reception, security, etc.Their growing number
is due to their wider and more extensive use in different areas. In order
to make them tangible for students, they should also be well applied in
education in the field of technical and information sciences.
This paper deals with 3 DOF robot arm made up of building blocks, so it can be
easily further developed. The arm pivot movement of the servomotors in stock
ensure that the positioning ones own software carried out by he inverse kinemati
cs,
bluetooth and other technologies.In this paper we present a model of robot arm,
which
is build based on Arduino Uno and three servos. It performs few basic actions of
robotic control system that were intented to design with highly possible precise
way
with the locally available equipments.Basically it is used as a time plotter bec
ause it
varies and needs constant update. It can also be used as a weather plotter by pl
otting
the temperature. It can be even interfaced with the Bluetooth module so that,
anything written or drawn through Bluetooth enabled smartphone can be replicated
with the help of servo arms and plotted on the surface. Any information or data
(either sketched by the user or obtained from other sources) can be plotted wit
h it.
It can be even used to process and draw any image by interfacing it with vision
embedded microcontroller. So in fact, it is a prototype, which can be further
modified by adding various modules according to our needs.

Motivation:
The motivation for this project was primarily an interest in undertaking a
challenging project in an interesting area of research. A writing robot is
hardly heard of, and interfacing it with some sensors, actuators and
Bluetooth module has really added a lot of features. Learning to code
and customize the features of robot in our own convenience is perhaps
an effective way of improving one s skill and productivity. Since it can
be vastly customized, we can learn the use of different hardware modules
and significantly improve our skills.
Problem Statement:

Recent research on robots has been trying to develop intelligent robots

that can match human behavior on high level intelligent tasks that require
sensing, complex motion and intelligence. In the recent few years robot is
given some artistic behavior that robot can sing, dance even robot can play
games. This paper presents a control method for a robotic arm to let the robot
to acquire another human artistic behavior drawing .
Although there are lots of humanoid robot these days able to qualify for above
mentioned task, however these are complicated and expensive to build. So, the ne
ed of robot which
perform simple human task and can be inexpensively built in your
own backyard is where our creativity and innovation lies.
Robots which are used for writing purpose are usually found
on printers and CNC Machines but it costs quite a lot more
as they form a part of being a conventional machinery. However with few compone
nts
and mechanical parts we can construct a Drawbot which can
write/draw like a human .This sort of robot can perform
simple task such as plotting time or temperature of the
room on board or on a piece of paper in real time.
But, why an arm and not a two-axis pen plotter? That's a sure
question for everyone who envision to make construct a control system
to draw a piece of art or plot something on a surface.
Actually, an arm-like robot is simpler to construct and
much easier to code. Just using servos and a microcontroller to build a
robotic arm that is able to draw algorithmic patterns on paper is the whole
idea behind this project.
Objectives
1. The goal of the project is to provide a robotic platform that can draw on a
paper sheet, with the purpose of educational use in the field of robotics and ro
bot
programming.
2. The real mission is to built an robotic installation that is able to find
co-relation between art and technology through creativity.
Scope/Applications:
Scope of current minor project:
1. This robot is estimated to plot any information on a piece of paper that incl
udes weather
information, time, temperature, pollen counts and any character. Since the robot
is small
and portable it can be used for plotting information on smaller areas signifying
it's flexibility
and diverse application.
2. This project can also help visually impaired person to recognize the letters
and
numbers or any pattern by holding the arms of robot. Since the motion of the arm
is human
alike, the user can feel the gesture of the letters or any pattern and can be us
ed as a
learning tool. It also serves a subject of great curiosity to the children as it
resembles a
toy and it can also help them recognize letters in their initial learning phase.

3.Electronic Circuit layout can be plotted on to a copper-clad board which can b

e etched normally.

Future Possible Enhancement:

1. There is scope of development of the algorithms used in the prototype and the
y can be implemented according to the design to be made.
Data and information can be extracted in real time with the help of varieties of
sensors and modules available. For example, it can be
interfaced wirelessly through bluetooth and other wireless modules to control it
's movement through far distance.
Even intelligence can be developed which allows the robot to choose the optimize
d plotting algorithm.

Chapter 2 Literature Review:

There have been few researches on the study of drawing robot. The most common ro
botic arm used for drawing can be found used in xy pen
plotters. Pen plotters sketch by moving a pen or other instrument on the surface
of paper especially on a large size paper. Plotters are
restricted to line art instead of raster graphics as with other printers. Pen pl
otters can draw complex line art and text, but only can
operate slowly due to the mechanical movement of the pens. They are only able to
draw a number of close and regular lines instead of
creating a region of solid colour.

XY plotter is a type of pen plotter that operates in two axes of motion ( X & Y ) in
order to draw a continuous vector graphic.
Plotter differs from printer where plotter draws a continuous line much like a p
en while printer use a very fine matrix of dots
which is called ink to form image. The line plotted from the plotter is consider
ed as a discrete set of points. Figure below shows the
conventional plotter available in the market. XY Duster Machine is a machine whi
ch can clean a whiteboard or blackboard automatically with a
press of a button. It operated same as how XY plotter works. There were two ste
pper motor for XY Duster Machine where one of it used to move
X axis and the other for Y axis. The difference between plotter and duster machine w
as that the end effector for plotter was a pen while for duster
machine was a duster.
According to the entire project discussed above, the new design of our simple Dr
awbot should equipped
with all the advantages and eliminate the disadvantages of the previous design.
The new design should be equipped with a Z axis
motor to lift up the pen and a duster to erase the drawings if we want. It also
allows the interface between plotter and
android device to be able to plot some drawings on the paper.
Theoritical background:
Arduino Microcontroller
Arduino is an open-source electronics prototyping platform based on flexible, ea
sy to use hardware and software. This microcontroller is very powerful where it
can perform many tasks including robot control. The on-board chipset is using A
TMEL microprocessor and can easily be programmed by using Arduino programming
language and Arduino development environment. Commercially there are many type o
f Arduino in the market such as Arduino Mega, Arduino Leonardo, Arduino Uno, Ard
uino Nano and etc. Those entire microcontrollers had difference features and dif
ference in size which suit to difference project. For instance, Arduino Nano is
suitable to build mini robot that only have a few application due to its small s
ize.
Besides, Arduino also comes with Arduino shields that capable to install on the
Arduino main board. Those shields equipped with extra component like Ethernet po
rt, Wi-Fi card, and motor driver IC. To drive motor by using Arduino
20
microcontroller, it is advisable to use with Motor Shield that can drive the DC
motor, Stepper motor or a RC servo motor. User can easily change the speed of th
e motor by connecting the motor with the motor driver to the PWM pin on the Ardu
ino main board.
In this project, Arduino UNO as shown in Figure 3.2 is chosen as the main microc
ontroller. This is because the on board pins that are allocated for user are mor
e than enough to operate two stepper motor and one servo that make this XY plott
er functioning. For this XY plotter design, only three PWM are required.
Robot Arm
The designed arm is basically a 3 DOF planer robotic arm placed on a wooden boar
d.
The arm consists of two links made of aluminum sheet, one servo mount, two servo
motor
and a pen holder as an end effector. A suitable length of arm is maintained so t
hat it can sketch on a A4 size paper sheet .
Here end effector is a pen holder attached with a servo motor.
Servo Motor
Servo motor is an actuator that can be controlled precisely for linear or angula
r position. A servo motor consists of electric motor,
feedback device and electronic controller. Servo is needed to feed a signal puls
e to rotate for a particular angle. We used MG 996
servo motor which is high torque servo. To use the servo, firstly it needs to be
calibrated.
For 544us pulse MG 996 servo stays at its zero position and for 2400us that ser
vo stays at 180 degree position.