Effective networked and wireless simulation and control techniques while alleviating the access to high-cost manipulators

The process of deciding-on and purchasing the right manipulator(s) for a predetermined task can often turn to be very frustrating, especially when budget, time or minimal losses appear as essential factors. The market does tend to get larger and variety driven and there is a choice for almost any given price, however, the price/size ratio seems to remain constant. Larger scale manipulators do not show the price amortization enjoyed by the majority of the computerized consumer hardware over the past few years. In addition, the manufacturers for many of these manipulators do not provide adequate pre-sales supporting technical material (whether a result of lack of standardized specifications or pure negligence), nor effective warranties and service. Primarily affected are higher level educational institutions, where manipulators are likely to be exposed to student projects that demand constant diversity, various controlling software and hardware technique, they are likely to become victims of abusive usage and in addition to these, the institutions need to offer some of the highest standards of safety for the students. This paper presents a flavor of a software simulation and control package applied on a specific manipulator that is a significant tool in solving problems such as the above mentioned ones. In addition, the package offers a variety of implementation examples that can be directly derived from the simulation package, a completely ready networked simulation and control model as well as a fully functional implementation of a cell-phone control example of the CAD model or the actual robot.