RoboAnalyzer: 3D Model Based Robotic Learning Software

Abstract

Robotics has been a challenging subject for teachers to teach and for students to learn. One of the important aspects that make it difficult is the limited ability to perceive and visualize the concepts appropriately at the time of teaching. Most of the industrial robots are described geo- metrically by their Denavit-Hartenberg (DH) parameters, which are also difficult to perceive for students. Students will find the subject easier to learn if they are able to visualize in 3 dimensions. Tools that aid its learning have been developed by universities across the world as referred elsewhere. This paper proposes RoboAnalyzer, a 3D model based software that can be used to teach robotics subjects to undergraduate and postgraduate courses in engineering colleges in India and elsewhere. In the present implemen- tation, it can be used to learn DH parameters, forward kinematics of serial robots with revolute joints and allows 3D animation and graph plots as output.