Today industrial automation relies on extrem absolut and relativ mechanical precision of robots. Stationary industrial robots achive this by a very stiff structure, very precise actuators and sensors in each axis. This is the main reason why todays industrial robots are heavy, expensive and dangerous. Interaction with humans is restricted or even prohibited by various safety equipment. The usage of industrial robots in other fields than industrial production like household, is not possible and not even desirable.

In contrast to the above bionic manipulators have available the properties needed for automation in non industrial environments by design. By their light and flexible body bionic manipulators are best suited to interact with humans. The drawback of the manipulator's flexebility is a poor mechanical accuracy compared to classical industrial robots. Furthermore many degrees of freedom make it very hard to find a closed inverse transform which is needed for closed-loop positioning control.

The project's focus is on the development of a combination of robot controller and intelligent camera to control a bionic manipulator. The camera is used to measure the manipulators current position which is used by the robot controller to drive the manipulator to its target position.

 

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