Abstract
Industry 4.0 and digital factories leverage key technologies such as virtual reality (VR) to design, simulate, optimize, and interact with physical production systems remotely or collaboratively. Recent advancements in industrial and aerospace applications demonstrate that the integration of VR with versatile robotic control techniques can unlock new opportunities. VR offers an "extended arm" to physical environments by providing a user-friendly human-machine interface, enhancing sustainability, testability, and more in robotic control systems. This research focuses on a widely used and continuously evolving robotic arm, designed to function in an integrated system operating in both real and virtual environments. A 3-degree-of-freedom (3DOF) robotic arm was initially developed and later upgraded to a 5DOF system. The robotic arm integrated with Virtual Reality (VR) interfaces based on the Robot Operating System (ROS) and Unity3D platforms. In the real-world scenario, inverse kinematics applied for the robot's movement mechanism, while gradient descent algorithms used for the virtual model. Forward kinematics using homogeneous transformation matrices employed to verify the accuracy of the robotic arm's movements. VR headsets and controllers used to manage the virtual robotic arm's control. The goal of this study is to develop integrated systems that enable control of real-world operations via remote observation, addressing challenges like prototyping costs and safety risks. By offering an innovative approach to robotic arm control through VR integration, this work contributes to the advancement of Industry 4.0 technologies. The findings suggest potential applications across various industries, opening up new possibilities for remote operation and training in complex manufacturing environments.
DOI: 10.61416/ceai.v28i1.9592