Python-Powered CORTEX Provides Forward, Inverse Kinematic Control of 3DOF Robot Arms

A pair of mechatronics engineering students at the Rajshahi University of Engineering & Technology (RUET), Nazib Abrar and Md. Raihanul Haque Rahi, have released an open-source Python-based control platform, which aims to bring forward and inverse kinematics to almost any three-degrees-of-freedom (3DOF) robot arm: CORTEX.

"CORTEX is a robotic arm controller software which employs both forward and inverse kinematics to control 3DOF robotic arms," the pair explain of their project. "It also uses image processing for object detection and coordinate sorting."

"Forward kinematics" is the use of equations relating to the motion of points and bodies to allow the position of a robot arm's end-effector to be computed using specified values for the parameters of its joints; inverse kinematics, meanwhile, works backwards, specifying the position of the end-effector and calculating how to move the joints for it to get there.

Using CORTEX, a suitable robot arm — connected to an Arduino microcontroller for the purposes of the pair's demonstration — can be controlled via serial communication from a host machine. A graphical interface provides manual control through forward kinematics, with sliders for the base, shoulder, elbow, and gripper, while a "pick and place" mode uses inverse kinematics and a computer vision system to send the gripper towards an object, collect it, and deposit it at a user-set location.

Another feature included in the software's current revision include "writing mode," which turns the robot into a basic plotter capable of reproducing text and simple line-art graphics — albeit with only partial success for more complex imagery.

The software has been published to GitHub under an unspecified open-source license; documentation is not included, though Abrar states that it "will be provided if anyone needs [it]."