Publication

Abstract : This paper presents the design, simulation, and tele-operated control of a 2-DOF, four-wheeled differential drive manipulator robot developed for industrial automation tasks such as pick-and-place and item sorting. The robot was initially designed using SolidWorks and then imported into the Gazebo simulation environment through the Robot Operating System (ROS2. A sample workspace was created within the simulator to evaluate the robot’s performance in tasks commonly encountered on factory floors. The robot was controlled via a teleoperation interface, allowing an operator to manually perform object pickup and placement operations. This approach enabled safe, flexible, and efficient testing of the robot’s kinematics, manipulator coordination, and task execution strategies without requiring a physical prototype. The simulation setup also allowed iterative improvements in assigning suitable controllers and drive systems for teleoperation. Overall, the robot simulation proved effective for validating early-stage design concepts and demonstrated its potential as a valuable tool for learning ROS2 and accelerating the development of robotic systems in industrial environments.