Excel for Fun: I made a 2D and 3D robot arm simulator controlled by Solver

I enjoy seeing how far you can take Excel.

This is a playable workbook that models 2D and 3D robot arms using only ordinary spreadsheet formulas, charts, sliders, and Solver. You can move the arm with red input cells or sliders, set a target point, and then use Excel’s Solver Add-in to find the control values that move the hand to the target.

The workbook starts with a simple 2D arm, then generalizes the same idea to a 3D arm inspired by the old Radio Shack / TOMY Armatron toy robot arm. Because it’s Excel, you can see every step, which makes the math easier to understand.

GitHub, demo, and download:
https://github.com/CarlKCarlK/excel-3d-robot-arm

Works best in desktop Excel on Windows or Mac.