This is a good question. The answer is in two parts.
robotic arms: A good place to consider is the very detailed view of robotic arms in
S.N. van den Brink, Modelling and control of a robotic arm actuated by nonlinear artificial muscles, MSc thesis, Technische Universiteit Eindhoven, 2007:
http://www.mate.tue.nl/mate/pdfs/7623.pdf
See chapter 2, on Description of the robotic arm and the muscles.
real-time image processing: The catch here is how one understands the term "real time". For example, it is possible to perform edge detection on the frames during video capture using some form of video camera such as a Microsoft webcam. On the one hand, in this instance, edge detection is carried out during video capture would be considered real-time edge detection. However, also in this instance, edge detection depends on the availability of an image in a video frame, which is captured before edge detection can begin. In other words, you will find different interpretations of what constitutes "real-time" in image processing. Here is an example of what is considered a real-time surveillance system:
Hugo Hedberg, Image Processing Architectures for Binary Morphology and Labeling, Lund University, 2008: