Desarrollo de una interfaz gráfica interactiva para el robot OpenBotv V1 en el entorno de MATLAB.

Abstract

At this technological moment, the research area of manipulator robots is very active, since the impact they have had on the development of automation and process optimization has been enormous. This thanks to the improvement in processing speeds, the evolution of embedded systems, the advances in electronic miniaturization, and even 3D printing, just to mention a few related facts. Manipulator robotics, and its study with practical units, has begun to be included in electronic engineering programs and other related engineering programs in the last two decades. Being an area of high interest among students eager to learn how the electronics and other mathematical concepts behind today's robots work. Specifically, at Universidad Distrital Francisco José de Caldas, a few years ago the Laboratory of Facultad de Ingeniería began a high investment in laboratory equipment oriented to control and mobile robotics, among them the OpenBotv V1 manipulator robot from the company ROBOTCS 4.0, that has 6 degrees of freedom, serial connection and bluetooth, among other features. With the inclusion of the intrinsic elective of Mobile Robotics, most of the equipment in the laboratory has been used. However, the OpenBotv V1 robot has not been used as much, due to the inherent risks that can be generated by the improper use of the equipment, taking into account its high cost, in addition to the limitations of access to the various equipment that was given for more than a year and a half as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Precisely, this boom and the challenges it entails, makes manipulator robotics a topic that is well worth studying and exploring by electronics engineering students. However, the first approaches to these robots should be done not only theoretically, but from simulators that give confidence to the person in training, to later start working with the real manipulator. The OpenBotv V1 robot has a wide variety of PC communication possibilities using different environments such as Matlab, LabView, C++, Java, Python and ROS. There is also a mobile graphical interface, to perform some basic movements with the robot from mobile devices. However, in order to get the robot to work properly, in addition to downloading some libraries and configuring some software components properly, it is essential to take into account the rotation limitations of each of the various joints in the programming, in order to not to generate unexpected behavior of the motors and therefore of the robot. Precisely the need to take into account the characteristics of the robot led us, together with the manufacturer of Openbot V1, to consider the possibility of designing and implementing a graphical interface that allows working more safely with the robot.