Thesis (M.Eng.) - Asian Institute of Technology, 1997

A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Engineering, School of Advanced Technologies

Designing and building products using Mechatronics principles needs to employ an integrated approach for designing each of the subsystems like mechanical manipulator, actuators, electrical drivers and the electronic controller so that the resulting product is supenor m functionality, ·reliability and cost effectiveness. In this research project, the Mechatronics concepts have been used for designing and building a high-speed catching machine (a programmable ball catching robot) This project consists of two parts Part 1: Fixed catching position A ball is released from a fixed height. The sensor will detect the time and height of the ball and inform the controller to move the gripper mounted on the X-Y table so that it catches the ball. The gripper needs to move at acceleration greater than g . The X-Y table motion is calculated in such a way that the gripper catches the ball just before it hits the ground. Part 2 : Dynamic catching position A ball is struck by a mechanism which can change the hitting angle and force applied to the ball. Data of ball motion can be input into the catching machine a priori in a dynamic manner. When sensor detects the ball, the gripper will be moved to catch the ball. As a part of the thesis, analysis and design of the different subsystems have been performed and prototype machine has been built to demonstrate the theory developed in this research.