Development of a Multi-Link Arm Control System Under ROS Platform

Abstract

Remote handling and robotics are rapidly evolving technology. In the `Tokamak' the presence of human is not possible for nominal and maintenance operations due to high level of radiation, temperature and vacuum. Hence intelligent remote handling and robotics will play an important role in performing various tasks such as inspection, material handling and maintenance. This dissertation describes the development of a control system in ROS using various packages and algorithms for controlling a multi-link arm. The main goal was to develop a single master ROS system which can control multiple multi-link arm. In `Tokamak' environment it is not feasible for humans to perform inspection and maintenance tasks. So, to make maintenance and inspection tasks more easy remote handling tasks are carried out with support of various robots and autonomous systems. The developed system will make remote handling tasks more feasible and easy as it enables the operator to control various robotic arms using a single master system developed under ROS platform. The ROS is an open source framework for robot control and gaining popularity among robotics researchers. In fact it is a meta operating system i.e. something between an operating system and middleware. The work that has been done covers various aspects, such as: operating system management in different robotic platform, study of various forms of programming in the ROS environment, evaluating building alternatives, development of the interface with ROS or the practical test with the developed multi-link arm.