Graduation Year

2010

Document Type

Thesis

Degree

M.S.M.E.

Degree Granting Department

Mechanical Engineering

Major Professor

Rajiv Dubey, Ph.D.

Committee Member

Kyle B. Reed, Ph.D.

Committee Member

Redwan M. Alqasemi, Ph.D.

Committee Member

Shuh - Jing Ying, Ph.D.

Keywords

PID, GUI, rehabilitation robots, C++ functions, accuracy, repeatability

Abstract

Implementation of C++ and Matlab based control of University of South Florida's latest wheelchair-mounted robotic arm (USF WMRA-II), which has 9 degrees-of-freedom, was carried out under this Master's thesis research. First, the rotational displacements about the 7 joints of the robotic arm were calibrated. It was followed by setting the control gains of the motors. Then existing high-level programs developed using C++ and Matlab for USF WMRA-I were modified for WMRA-II. The required low-level programs to provide complete kinematics of the joint movements to the controller board of WMRA-II (Galil DMC-2183) were developed using C++. A test GUI was developed using C++ to troubleshoot the control program and to evaluate the operation of the robotic arm. It was found that WMRA-II has higher repeatability, accuracy and manipulability as well as lower power consumption than WMRA-I. Touch-Screen and Spaceball user interfaces were successfully implemented to facilitate people with different disabilities.

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