Design and Fabrication of a Manually Controlled Electro-Mechanical Manipulator for Educational Purpose

In the fields of robotics and mechatronics, the use of an experimental platform in the learning process to allow for practical experience and demonstration of the core concepts cannot be overemphasized. A real-life mini robotic arm is indispensable to the learning process in these fields of study. There are commercially available robotic manipulators designed for educational purposes. However, majority of commercially available robots applicable for undergraduate or graduate levels learning are very expensive or have a closed hardware and software architecture. To this end, an easy to fabricate and inexpensive three degrees of freedom electro-mechanical manipulator is hereby presented. Sufficient information and design methodology employed in its fabrication is succinctly detailed including working drawings, components materials specifications and design calculations so that any student can reproduce the manipulator in the laboratory or workshop. In terms of performance, the manipulator gripper successfully lifted differently shaped payloads of 150g each of the test weights without slipping through the gripper jaws both when stationary and when in motion. For the repeatability test, the calculated repeatability was ±0.088 mm this is within the range for common commercial robotic manipulators. The overall cost of materials and standard components was NGN 38,000 (USD 77.00). The produced manipulator is relatively cheaper compared to commercially available educational robotic manipulators.