ABSTRACT
In the previous chapters, we looked into the various parts and components that go into building a robot. Nevertheless, these various parts need to be assembled and the ensemble must be controlled in a coordinated way to achieve the objective. There are many ways to build a robot, but typically in any robot design there will be a control system in place that is usually an onboard computing device. For example, a robotic arm is made of joints, links, and a grabber mechanism. If the robotic arm needs to pick up an object, all the joint motions must be coordinated so that the gripper moves to the target, opens the gripper, and picks up the object. This requires a close control of many actuators.
