Robotic arm

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A robotic arm is a robot manipulator, usually programmable, with similar functions to a human arm. The links of such a manipulator are connected by joints allowing either rotational motion (such as in an articulated robot) or translational (linear) displacement. The links of the manipulator can be considered to form a kinematic chain. The business end of the kinematic chain of the manipulator is called the end effector and it is analogous to the human hand. The end effector can be designed to perform any desired task such as welding, gripping, spinning etc., depending on the application. For example robot arms in automotive assembly lines perform a variety of tasks such as welding and parts rotation and placement during assembly.

In space the Space Shuttle Remote Manipulator System also known as Canadarm or SSRMS and its successor Canadarm2 are examples of multi degree of freedom robotic arms that have been used to perform a variety of tasks such as inspections of the Space Shuttle using a specially deployed boom with cameras and sensors attached at the end effector and satellite deployment and retrieval manoeuvres from the cargo bay of the Space Shuttle.

The robot arms can be autonomous or controlled manually and can be used to perform a variety of tasks with great accuracy.

The robotic arm can be fixed or mobile (i.e. wheeled) and can be designed for industrial or home applications.

For more information about Robotic arm, read the full article at Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.


News tagged with robotic arm

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Feeling the way

Feeling the way: Robotic device can help visually impaired people

Technology / Engineering

created Nov 23, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- For many people, it has become routine to go online to check out a map before traveling to a new place. But for blind people, Google maps and other visual mapping applications are of little ...


Robotic gardening: MIT course creates robot-tending tomatoes

Robotic gardening: MIT course creates robot-tending tomatoes

Electronics / Robotics

created Mar 10, 2009 | popularity 3.8 / 5 (6) | comments 3

(PhysOrg.com) -- In the middle of MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab (CSAIL) sits a platform of fake grass with tomato plants nestled in terra cotta pots, growing under the light of an ...


Refurbished Hubble Space Telescope Ready to Resume Mission of Explorat

Refurbished Hubble Ready to Resume Exploration

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created May 19, 2009 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (7) | comments 4

(PhysOrg.com) -- The Hubble Space Telescope has been with us for nearly two decades. In that time, its breathtaking images have captured people’s imaginations and its groundbreaking science has revealed some ...


Astronauts moving huge chest of drawers in orbit (AP)

Huge chest of drawers hoisted aboard space station

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Aug 31, 2009 | popularity 4.3 / 5 (3) | comments 0

(AP) -- The astronauts aboard the linked shuttle and station moved a giant chest of drawers from one spacecraft to the other Monday, and hitched it to the orbiting outpost.


Meteorite Found on Mars Yields Clues About Planet's Past

Meteorite Found on Mars Yields Clues About Planet's Past

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Aug 10, 2009 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (11) | comments 2

(PhysOrg.com) -- NASA's Mars Rover Opportunity is investigating a metallic meteorite the size of a large watermelon that is providing researchers more details about the Red Planet's environmental history. ...


Space Porch Open for Business

Space Porch Open for Business

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Aug 10, 2009 | popularity 4.3 / 5 (3) | comments 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- The International Space Station has a new "engawa" -- and it's open for business.


A flight engineer participates as construction and maintenance continue on the International Space Station

Japan sends first cargo spacecraft to ISS

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Sep 10, 2009 | popularity 4.2 / 5 (5) | comments 2

Japan early Friday launched its first cargo spacecraft to the International Space Station, aiming for a share of space transport after the retirement of the US space shuttle fleet next year.


NASA patches air-purifying system on space station (AP)

NASA patches air-purifying system on space station

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Jul 26, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0

(AP) -- A space station air purifier was working again Sunday after it shut down at the worst possible time, when company was still visiting and had swollen the on-board crowd to a record 13.


Mars Rover Yielding New Clues While Lodged in Martian Soil

Mars Rover Yielding New Clues While Lodged in Martian Soil

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Jun 25, 2009 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (11) | comments 1

(PhysOrg.com) -- NASA's Mars rover Spirit, lodged in Martian soil that is causing traction trouble, is taking advantage of the situation by learning more about the Red Planet's environmental history.


Mars Rover Update

Mars Rover Update

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Mar 26, 2009 | popularity 4.3 / 5 (7) | comments 5

In January 2004, NASA landed two identical robotic rovers named Spirit and Opportunity on the surface of Mars. The twins were primed for a brief 3-month mission to tell us a story of water and possibly life ...


One Mars Rover Sees a Distant Goal; The Other Takes a New Route

One Mars Rover Sees a Distant Goal; The Other Takes a New Route

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Mar 18, 2009 | popularity 4.6 / 5 (7) | comments 2

(PhysOrg.com) -- On a plain that stretches for miles in every direction, the panoramic camera on NASA's Mars rover Opportunity has caught a first glimpse on the horizon of the uplifted rim of the big crater ...


Spirit Takes a Peek at Her Belly

Spirit Takes a Peek at Her Belly

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Jun 04, 2009 | popularity 4.6 / 5 (5) | comments 1

(PhysOrg.com) -- A new image of Spirit's underbelly is helping engineers assess the rover's current state and plan her escape from soft soil. The panoramic mosaic of multiple images was taken by the microscopic ...


Astronauts successfully install solar wings (AP)

Astronauts successfully install solar wings (Update)

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Mar 19, 2009 | popularity 3.5 / 5 (2) | comments 0

(AP) -- Spacewalking astronauts installed the last set of solar wings at the international space station Thursday, accomplishing the top job of shuttle Discovery's mission. Steven Swanson and Richard Arnold ...


NASA Gives 'Go' for Space Shuttle Launch on May 11

NASA Gives 'Go' for Space Shuttle Launch on May 11

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Apr 30, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (3) | comments 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- NASA managers completed a review Thursday of space shuttle Atlantis' readiness for flight and selected an official launch date for the STS-125 mission to upgrade the Hubble Space Telescope. ...


Phoenix Mars Lander Confirms Martian Water

Phoenix Mars Lander Confirms Martian Water

Space & Earth / Space Exploration

created Jul 31, 2008 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (88) | comments 22

(PhysOrg.com) -- Laboratory tests aboard NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander have identified water in a soil sample. The lander's robotic arm delivered the sample Wednesday to an instrument that identifies vapors produced ...