Technology and Engineering · High school

A six-axis robot arm

Turn the joints one by one and follow forward kinematics: where the gripper tip ends up, worked out from the angles.

In the learning section below the figure, predict, try, complete the tasks and check yourself with short questions.

Fig. 1A six-axis robot arm

Turn the joints, pick a preset pose or take the arm apart

x 300 · y 0 · z 420 mm

Parts and inner mechanism

Apart0%

With the arm apart, hover over a part, tap it or pick it from the list.

Pick an assembly to see what it does and what it is made of on a real robot.

Joints

J1 Base: turns the body about the vertical axis
J1 angle
J2 Shoulder: tilts the upper arm forwards and back
J2 angle
J3 Elbow: raises and lowers the forearm
J3 angle
J4 Forearm roll: turns the forearm about its own axis
J4 angle
J5 Wrist pitch: tilts the gripper up and down
J5 angle
J6 Flange roll: turns the gripper about its own axis
J6 angle

You can type your own values too: enter an angle in the box and press Enter.

6 joints = 6 degrees of freedom: 3 for position (x, y, z) + 3 for orientation

Tool point position

x: 300mm
y: 0mm
z: 420mm

The point between the two fingers, measured from the centre of the base on the bench

Tool point orientation

roll: 0°
pitch: 0°
yaw: 0°

Reach72%

372 mm from the shoulder, at most 520 mm

Preset poses

Learn

Progress is kept on this page only; no points are given.

1Predict
2Try
3Explain

With the arm at home, if you turn only the base (J1) by 90°, what happens to the tool point’s height above the bench (z)?

Faint circle: farthest reach from the shoulder (a sphere)Purple line: the turning axis of the selected jointGold dot: the tool point; the dashed line drops to its spot on the benchPosition and orientation come from one forward kinematics chain: every joint is a rotation and every link is a translation; multiplying them in order gives where the tool point is and which way it faces. The arm in the figure is a teaching model (shoulder height 200 mm, upper arm 220 mm, forearm 210 mm, wrist to tool point 90 mm); fully stretched, it reaches 520 mm from the shoulder.

A six-axis robot arm

Parts and inner mechanism

Joints

Tool point position

Tool point orientation

Preset poses

Target point

Learn

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