Date of Defense



Electrical and Computer Engineering

First Advisor

Joseph Kelemen

Second Advisor

Dr. John Gesink


A robotic arm control system was developed to implement pull-to-position movement based on Denavit-Hartenberg (DH) parameter description. Components were selected and ordered via Digi-Key with effort made to select Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS) compliant parts. Schematic and printed circuit board (PCB) layout was designed using ExpressSCH. The finalized circuit was printed by ExpressPCB. Components were then hand-soldered to the boards and benchmarked for satisfactory performance. User guides were developed to describe the power supply setup, interconnection, and function of the boards.

Software was developed to control the boards via a Two Wire Interface (TWI) inter-board communication and RS232 (serial) connection between the master board and the overall robot host. The processor used was a Atmel ATMega32(L). In System Programming (ISP) was included and verified using the AVRStudio 4 software. Functions and protocols were also included to allow for PC debugging through a utility such as Hyper-terminal and a serial port connection. The software utilizes definitions publicly available through the open-source community for Atmel chips combined with written software for the specific task. Functions were written with robust design in mind and recognizance of possible upgrades. An EEPROM memory structure was allocated to handle variables defined at startup of the kinematic link.

The system was designed to allow for stepper motor or servo motor control. With the flexibility of DH parameters, the same PCB board and code can be used to control a kinematic link with a different number of joints than the test setup. Ports and hardware to allow for joystick control were also included, but software functionality was beyond the scope of this project.

Access Setting

Honors Thesis-Campus Only