THE OPEN UNIVERSITY OF SRI LANKA

DEPARTMENT OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING

BACHELOR OF TECHNOLOGY LEVEL 06
ACADEMIC YEAR 2014/2015

MEX6271- ROBOTICS
ASSIGNMENT NO 01
PLEASE READ THE FOLLOWING INSTRUCTIONS BEFORE ANSWERING THE ASSIGNMENT
INSTRUCTIONS:
1. This assignment is based on Book 01. You may require referring addition resources for more information.
2. Answer all questions
3. Submission of assignments can be done by any of the following methods
I.

By registered post to the address given below

THE COURSE CO-ORDINATOR IN MEX6271
DEPARTMENT OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING
THE OPEN UNIVERSITY OF SRI LANKA
P.O.BOX 21, NAWALA
NUGEGODA

II.

Depositing it into the assignment box located outside the Mechanical Engineering Research Laboratory at
Science & Technology building, Nawala.

III.

Personally handing it over to the respective Coordinator. (Make sure that it is day stamped).

4. Deadline for submission: 06th February 2015. Please note that late submissions will not be entertained.

1) Discuss the reasons using a robot instead of human being to perform a specific task.

2) Describe the functions of basic components of a robot.

3) Describe the methods of teaching robots.

4) Describe the basic configuration of arm in robotic manipulator.
5) Discuss possible applications in which the redundant manipulators would be useful.
6) A human arm has 7 DOF. Discuss the advantages of having one extra DOF (with respect to 6 DOF)
in human arm.
7) What is the importance of homogeneous coordinates and homogeneous transformations with
reference to modeling of robotic manipulators? Explain.
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8) Explain the phenomenon of singularity of a mechanism with respect to a robot manipulator.

9) As technology advances, will the human worker lose jobs to robotic workers? Explain.

10) Discuss the essential characteristics of arc-welding robotic manipulators and spot welding robotic
manipulators.
11) What are the important items to be considered in deciding the use of robots in
I. Manufacturing operation?
II. Hazardous operation?
Elaborate your answers with suitable examples.

12) What are the different types of actuators used for robots? What are the advantages and
disadvantages of each?

13) Explain the control scheme for a sensors integrated robot hand.
14) What is Artificial Intelligence (AI)? Explain the AI connected with robotics.
15) What is robot vision? How is it advantageous for on-line inspection work? Describe a typical robot
vision to inspect,
a) a machined mechanical metallic component
b) a plastic component.

16) What are fundamental rotation matrices? Obtain the three fundamental rotation matrices for
rotations about axes , , and from the rotation matrix for rotation about an arbitrary axis .
17) The rotation matrix

, relating the orientation of frame {2} with respect to frame {1} is given by

0.87 0.43 0.25

= 0.5
0.75 0.43
0
0.5
0.87
Determine the corresponding set of
- Euler angles.

18) Determine the homogeneous transformation matrix for rotation of 30 about the
by a rotation of 60 about the

-axis, followed by a rotation of 90 about the

-axis, followed

-axis.

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19) For the Figure 1 is shown below, find the homogeneous transformation matrices

and

for

= 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.

Figure 1

20) A robot workstation has been set up with a TV camera, as shown in the Figure 2. The camera can see
the origin of the base coordinate system where a six-link robot arm is attached, and also the center
of a cube to be manipulated by the robot. If a local coordinate system has been established at the
center of the cube, then this object, as seen by the camera, can be represented by a homogeneous
transformation matrix

. Also, origin of the base coordinate system as seen by the camera can be

expressed by a homogeneous transformation matrix

0
1
=
0
0

1
0
0
0

, where

0 1
0 10
1 9
0
1

1
0
=
0
0

0 0 10
1 0 20
0 1 10
0
0
1

a) Unfortunately, after the equipment has been set up and these coordinate systems have been
taken, someone rotates the camera 90 about

axis of the camera. Determine the

position/orientation of the camera with respect to the robots base coordinate system.
b) After you have calculated answer for the question (a), the same person rotated the object
about the

axis of the object and translated it 4 units of distance along the rotated

axis.

Determine the position/orientation of the object with respect to the robots base coordinate
system. also, determine the position/orientation of the object with respect to the rotated
camera coordinate system
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Figure 2

END

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