Robot Design

Overview of robots used in material handling, transportation and automated manufacturing. Sensors: force transducers, tachometers, orientation and joint angle detectors; video. Kinematics of a multidimensional robot arm. Inverse kinematics: optimal arm path generation. Automatic control: negative feedback, stability, proportional and integral compensation. Motor sizing, drive trains, navigation and locomotion. Labs: design and construction of a robot, with arm; use of embedded C programming for robot control. Enrollment limited to 24.