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Mechanical design · Closed-loop control

Residential cupping robot

Designing a compact arm and specialized gripper for home settings, with magnetic-encoder feedback for closed-loop stepper control.

  • SOLIDWORKS
  • STM32
  • MATLAB
  • Kinematics
Period
Jun 2023 — Oct 2023
Role
Project lead
Institution & location
Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University · Suzhou

Advisors · Dr. Qinglei Bu & Prof. Jie Sun

Background

Designed for elderly users in Chinese households, this project explores compact mechanical and control solutions for residential cupping, focusing on arm size, the end-effector, and trajectory execution.

My contributions

  • Led mechanical design of a specialized gripper and a compact arm with a 63.3 cm reach.
  • Implemented closed-loop stepper control using STM32 and magnetic encoders to improve gripping and trajectory execution.
  • Validated kinematics, joint accelerations, and trajectories using D-H parameters and MATLAB Robotics Toolbox.

Technical approach

Mechanical design

Design a compact arm, base, and specialized gripper.

Feedback control

Close the stepper-control loop with magnetic-encoder feedback.

Kinematic validation

Validate trajectories and accelerations in simulation and compare control modes.

Outcomes & evaluation

63.3 cmArm reach
STM32Closed-loop controller
  • Experiments showed that closed-loop control reduced missed steps in the second and third axes.
  • The research was published in Robot Intelligence Technology and Applications 8.

Resources

Next project

Autonomous delivery vehicle