Development of a 6-DoF Robotic Manipulator with Smart Actuators and Real-Time Inverse Kinematics

Commercial 6-DoF robotic manipulators are often expensive and structurally closed, limiting their accessibility in education, research, and low-cost automation. Moreover, many low-cost alternatives suffer from limited precision, poor real-time performance, or lack of reproducibility. As a practical alternative, this paper presents the development of a modular 6-DoF robotic manipulator constructed using Xiaomi CyberGear actuators and 3D-printed structural components. A Jacobian-based geometric inverse kinematics algorithm enables real-time, closed-loop pose control across all joints via a distributed embedded architecture with CAN bus communications. The mechanical structure is manufactured through additive methods to reduce weight and cost while maintaining design flexibility. Both simulation and physical experiments demonstrate sub-centimeter root-mean-square tracking errors for circular and square trajectories in three orthogonal planes. The results validate the system's suitability for applications requiring high precision, responsiveness, and ease of customization.