Design and Development of Industrial Grade Delta Robot
In international industries various type of delta robots of renowned brands are used for pick and place purposes. But these robots have various downsides such as very high initial cost, expensive maintenance, and non-availability of spare parts as they must be imported. Our prime objective is
2025-06-28 16:31:23 - Adil Khan
Design and Development of Industrial Grade Delta Robot
Project Area of Specialization RoboticsProject SummaryIn international industries various type of delta robots of renowned brands are used for pick and place purposes. But these robots have various downsides such as very high initial cost, expensive maintenance, and non-availability of spare parts as they must be imported.
Our prime objective is to develop a cost effective delta robot which operates at nominal speed, and workspace in order
to carry out its operations, and whose operating speed and working efficiency could have been improved in the upcoming years.
This project is about designing, developing, and controlling of industrial grade delta robot. The primary objective of the project is to make delta robot performing pick and place operations on objects coming on a conveyor having weight up to 0.5 (Kg). On this robot the object detection using machine vision algorithm will be implemented. A machine vision algorithm will detect the objects along with their orientation, and speed through which they are moving; and the end effector will pick and then place them on desired location. This Robot is a 3+1 degree of freedom robot which can not only pick the object but it can orient the object in the desired position.
Pick and Place Operations are vital and important to every industry around. This product aims at providing affordable solution to the industries to speed up their automating lines or to automate certain workstations involving traditional pick and place. Entrepreneurship is the demand of modern-day era. People are moving on from conventional customs. Once delta robot has been manufactured and tested it can be launched as a commercial product. We can sell our robot at a nominal price to small and struggling small scale industries. Not only it will boost the production rate of respective industries, but also reduce their manufacturing costs. The delta robot that would be made, must be installed inside a closed facility such as a packaging industry etc. The workspace of our robot is not more than one metre. So, by considering the above two factors, we can deduce that delta robot will make a positive kind of impact on our environment. As far as the sustainability goals are concerned, we are hopeful that the robot once it has entered the competitive market and harsh industrial environment. It will be able to work for long hours with minimum maintenance to give efficient results.
Project ObjectivesThe objective of this project is to design and develop a pick and place delta robot embedded with a machine vision algorithm. The aim is to develop this robot in such a way that it can be implemented in small scale industries with a room for modification over a period. The project is divided into 3 main steps. Initial step is to make a 3D CAD model of hardware design of the Delta Robot with working simulation. Second step is to select the appropriate material for the manufacturing of the robot. Lastly, the main task is to train the object detection model along with kinematics control of the robot using microcontroller.
Moving towards the movement/working of the robot. A graphic user interface( GUI ) will be developed to access the direction/position within the workspace. This GUI interface is like a remote-control car toy, where with the help of arrow keys one can move the robot to the desire position. This GUI will entertain the user about the real time x,y,z coordinates along with the orientation of the object under consideration.
Next part of the robot is to automate the workstation of any industry. For that a camera module will be able to detect the coordinates of the object coming on the conveyor. These coordinates will be communicated to the controller where controller will move the robot to that particular position and object will be picked up using suction cup serving as end effector of the delta robot.
Project Implementation MethodTo design something, the first step is to select the best suitable components or materials in our financial rage to develop that product. In the case of designing delta robot we selected most suitable components based on their practical performance, availability in market and cost. The selected components should meet these three criteria’s optimally.
In short, the component we have selected should be very durable so that it can work under high pressure during a long amount of time (endurance life). The selected component should be readily available/can be manufactured in market at a nominal cost which explains the last two criteria. Following are the best suitable components we selected based on the criteria’s mentioned previously:
· Angle Iron
· Double Row Ball Bearings
· Spherical rod end Bearings
· Aluminum hollow pipe
· Steel tubes
· Studs, check nuts and screws
· Circular iron shafts
· Washers
According to our introspection these components are best suitable for developing the delta robot.
Furthermore, changes were made on each product to complete all the machining operations
on a lathe machine.
Our hardware is ready and next step deals with the assembly of the parts. Assembly involves the screwing the arms of the robots and mounting of the gears and motor to the design. All the assembly operations are performed in consideration to the damping of vibrations using rubber insulation. The assembly process is completed effectively. Now next part is to mount the robot to the rigid structure. For the mounting of the robot we have chosen ceiling beam where the robot will be mounted using adjustable mounting mechanism, already designed and manufactured.
Last and most important step is to develop the Kinematics control of the robot with machine vision algorithm implemented. Raspberry Pi 4 and Arduino Mega will be used for implementation of Machine Vision and Inverse Kinematics Control of the robot respectively. For the movement of three actuating arms we will be using NEMA stepper Motor ( having microstepping motor driver ). The machine vision algorithm will be developed using OPENCV- Python on Ubuntu operating system. For accomplishing this task we are using Raspberry pi 4 having 4GB of RAM memory with FLIR Firelfly camera ( 60FPS and 0.3MP ) . The x,y,z coordinates in pixel domain are mapped with real time coordinates and these coordinates are used by Arduino Mega Controller to solve inverse kinematics control of the robot for its movement.
Benefits of the ProjectThis project envolves the study of the machine design, machine vision, Embedded systems, Industrial Internet of things ( IIOT ), Control Systems ,Robotics, Industrial Automation and 3D CAD/CAM Modelling. As a mechatronics' major this project is of great gain in terms of gaining practical knowledge of these subjects.
Secondly our goal is to make a cost-effective product which is nearly as efficient as the product of renowned companies. As the delta robot available in the international market are very costly and their parts and maintaince is itself very cumbersome. For that purpose our product is cost-effective, simple and efficient for industries and small scale firms who wants to automate their conveyor line.
This delta robot will have an extra room for the modification of different end-effector designs. Such as using laser cutting end-effector, 3d printing module and extra degree of freedom end-effector for pick and place operations. Now depending upon the industrial demand this robot can be modified and serve different purposes.
Technical Details of Final DeliverableThe following are the end-design characteristics of our final deliverable.
- Nema Stepper Motors (run through a microstepping motor driver) will be used with the gear drives and bearing pulleys.
- Will be able to detect and track the moving object on a conveyor and provide its real time x,y,z coordinates.
- Robot will move to the desired position and keep tracking until not picked.
- Will be able to pick and place object after detection using Machine Vision Camera ( a greyscale, 60 FPS, 0.3 Mega pixels camera).
- The picking mechanism will be a set of vacuum suction cups having gripping force of 50N ( having factor of safety of 5)
- Vacuum suction cups will be a set of single and double bellow cups having the ability to hold objects of different physical curvature.
- It will have graphical user interface for accessing the different position in the configuration space using human interface ( using remote control )
| Item Name | Type | No. of Units | Per Unit Cost (in Rs) | Total (in Rs) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total in (Rs) | 78150 | |||
| Machine Vision Greyscale Camera | Equipment | 1 | 15000 | 15000 |
| Vacuum suction cups | Equipment | 3 | 2800 | 8400 |
| Vacuum pump and tubing | Equipment | 1 | 25000 | 25000 |
| End effector Servo motor | Equipment | 1 | 6000 | 6000 |
| 3D printing of End Effector | Miscellaneous | 1 | 1500 | 1500 |
| Raspberry pi 4 | Equipment | 1 | 14000 | 14000 |
| Machining operations | Miscellaneous | 15 | 150 | 2250 |
| Mounting Structure | Miscellaneous | 1 | 6000 | 6000 |