Automated pneumatic vacuum suction robotic arm with computer vision

Abstract

In this paper, a 4 DOF robotic arm that made of acrylic was built and equipped with a 5 MP USB camera, a pneumatic vacuum suction cup and a small air pump. An image will be captured by the camera and then processed with computer vision algorithms. The algorithm will extract the coordinate from the object image. The extracted coordinate data from test objects then fed to the microcontroller. Pulses were generated by the microcontroller to the driver module to control the motors. Some parameters were changed and adjusted accordingly to achieve a different result for analysis purpose. Objects that are used in this research are boxes with various shapes, colors, surface sizes, and weight. The result, the robot was able to reach the object within 2 mm to 4 mm tolerance. Image processing algorithm centroid calculation errors are within 2 mm. Vacuum pickup success rate is 99%.