Robotic Arm Manipulation Laboratory With a Six Degree of Freedom JACO Arm

The JACO six degree of freedom robotic arm and associated software is characterized for use by students in a Robotic Manipulation Laboratory. The lab was implemented to help students understand tele-operation techniques with a sophisticated Kinova JACO robotic arm. The purpose of the research was to follow up on Jacintos work and expose students to forward kinematics via Denavit-Hartenberg DH parameters for robotic arm manipulation in a lab environment for various experiments. Jacinto demonstrated the viability of resistive glove control via simulation through the Robot Operating System ROS interface. He was not able to demonstrate real-time glove control. Here, we take an intermediate approach and introduce a virtual joystick. Manipulation experiments with various effector loads and Cartesian trajectories indicate a 1.0 kg load limit in the fully extended mode and 1.5 kg limit in a midrange mode. This verifies vendor specifications for the arm and is acceptable for light-load daily mobility requirements.