Robotic Arm Simulator – Forward & Inverse Kinematics | Python, PyQt & Matplotlib

This video demonstrates an interactive 2D robotic arm simulator developed in Python as a final project for CS50.

The simulator supports both forward kinematics (FK) and inverse kinematics (IK), joint-space motion planning, and smooth animated trajectories. A PyQt-based graphical interface with an embedded Matplotlib plot allows real-time visualization, slider-based joint control, and mouse-click inverse kinematics target selection.

Key features:
• Forward kinematics visualization and animation
• Closed-form inverse kinematics for a 2-link planar arm
• Click-to-set IK targets with elbow-up / elbow-down configurations
• Joint-space interpolation with configurable easing
• PyQt + Matplotlib interactive GUI
• Command-line interface and scenario-based demos

This project was designed as an educational robotics and engineering tool, emphasizing clean architecture, reusable kinematics logic, and intuitive user interaction.

🔗 GitHub repository:
https://github.com/sjoblomtech/robotic_arm...

🌐 Portfolio:
https://www.sjoblomtech.com

💼 LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/tobias-sjoblom/


robotics, robot arm, inverse kinematics, forward kinematics, motion planning, python, pyqt, matplotlib, simulation, cs50