6-DOF Robotic Arm
A computer-vision guided 6-DOF robotic arm — from a hand-cut aluminium frame to closed-loop pick-and-place.
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Overview
This project set out to build a full six-degree-of-freedom robotic arm capable of perceiving, localizing and manipulating objects autonomously. The mechanical structure was custom-designed and fabricated from 4mm sheet metal aluminium, chosen for its balance of rigidity and weight for a desktop-scale arm.
On the software side, I modeled the arm's forward and inverse kinematics in MATLAB, simulating joint trajectories before ever touching hardware. This let me validate reachability and avoid singularities ahead of time, then carry the same kinematic model over into the STM32 firmware that drives the six NEMA stepper motors in coordinated motion.
A camera-based computer vision pipeline handles object detection and localization, converting pixel coordinates into arm-frame targets that the inverse kinematics solver turns into joint angles — closing the loop from 'see it' to 'pick it up'.
Key Features
- 01Custom 4mm aluminium sheet-metal structure designed in SOLIDWORKS for rigidity at low weight
- 02Forward & inverse kinematics derived and validated through MATLAB trajectory simulation
- 03Coordinated multi-axis motion control across NEMA 24/23/17 stepper motors via STM32
- 04Computer-vision object detection and localization feeding real-world target coordinates into the kinematic solver
- 05PCB and wiring harness design in Altium Designer for the control electronics