Design and Implementation of a Low-Cost Wearable-Sensor Interface for Wireless Control of a Six-Axis Robotic Arm

Authors

  • Agraram Ganesh Goud

Keywords:

human–robot interaction; gesture control; robotic arm; wearable sensors; flex sensor; MPU6050; Arduino; Bluetooth; teleoperation; 3D printing

Abstract

Natural and accessible control interfaces are important for robotic manipulation in education, remote handling, assistive systems and small-scale automation. This paper presents the design and implementation of a low-cost wearable-sensor interface for wireless control of a six-axis robotic arm with a gripper. The transmitter is a glove instrumented with three flex sensors and two MPU6050 inertial sensors. An Arduino Nano performs sensor acquisition, start-up calibration and threshold-based gesture mapping, while an HC-05 Bluetooth link transmits compact character commands to an Arduino Uno on the robotic arm. The receiver coordinates a PCA9685 servo driver, six MG996R-class servo motors and an A4988-driven NEMA 17 stepper motor. The mechanical structure was manufactured from open-source-derived, 3D-printed components, with the stepper motor selected for base rotation because the assembled arm exceeded the practical torque available from a standard servo at that joint. The completed prototype reproduced mapped finger, wrist and arm gestures as joint motions, including base rotation, shoulder and elbow positioning, wrist orientation and gripper opening and closing. Implementation testing also identified reversed motion commands caused by sensor orientation and command mapping; these were corrected by exchanging the corresponding command conditions in firmware. The work demonstrates a self-contained microcontroller-based architecture that does not require an external camera, workstation or cloud service. The contribution is an experimentally implemented engineering platform and a transparent account of its calibration, command mapping, hybrid actuation and integration challenges. Quantitative recognition accuracy and latency measurements were not available in the submitted project records and are therefore identified as priorities for future validation.

 

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Published

09.07.2024

How to Cite

Agraram Ganesh Goud. (2024). Design and Implementation of a Low-Cost Wearable-Sensor Interface for Wireless Control of a Six-Axis Robotic Arm. International Journal of Intelligent Systems and Applications in Engineering, 12(22s), 2534 –. Retrieved from https://www.ijisae.org/index.php/IJISAE/article/view/8513

Issue

Vol. 12 No. 22s (2024)

Section

Research Article

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