Robotic Arm Control with Hand Movement Gestures

Abstract

This paper presents an application on how to control a robotic arm with the hand movement of the operator. Hand movement controlled robotic arms can move more naturally by following the movement of the operator's hand. The implementation is done in two versions. The first one uses the accelerometer from a smart watch and based on the operator's hand movements the robotic arm is controlled. The second one uses the accelerometer from a smart phone and moves the robotic arm accordingly. With the smart phone the robotic arm can be controlled in two ways by finger gestures on the touch screen or by moving the phone in the air. The smart phone connects to a computer which controls the robotic arm by sending commands on the serial interface. The smart phone can connect to the computer via Wi-Fi or Bluetooth. The smart watch connects to the computer via a special wireless protocol using a USB wireless stick, shipped with the smart watch.