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Beginners Robotic Arm

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Robot – work in progress
 
Renosis's picture
By Renosis
@ September 22, 2010
Rotates, Moves 4 Axis, Grabs(sort of)
Cost to build: 
$100
Time to build: 
10 hours
Weight: 
2000 grams

 

This is my first solo project from scratch. My only robot experience is with the starter robot on this site. I do have some programming experience though. The robot is mostly made out of Styrene. The first joint has some polymorph on it to secure it better. I have gotten the arm built and all the servos on. I need to connect the wiring and mount the picaxe and batteries still.I plan on using 3 AA cells, hopefully it will be enough. The design isn't so good in the sense that I am just doing it without any type of plans or research. So I can already tell the lengths of each segment aren't exactly optimal.

The good thing about the design is that I made it entirely modular. If I ever need to change anything, it is very easy to take apart.

check it out:

Full Arm:

Full Arm

This is The Base, It comes apart like the rest of it, but it requires the removal of a screw which I did not do for these pics:

Modular Arm Base

Here is the first module added on which includes the base joint and half the first segment:

Module 2

 

Next Module is the Second half of the first section and the second joint:

 

 

Next is the last arm extension, which may be a little too long, I may shorten it:

 

Module Last Extension

 

The Last Module that snaps on is the Wrist/Grabber section, bare in mind that the last section is secured with electrical tape and is a work in progress. I just don't have a good idea for the claw yet, so this is temporary solution :)

 

 

Okay and a final picture, since the wiring is not done or anything, I have to extend the arm manuall by hand. I am glad I made the design modular, because I am sure I am going to have to tweak the hell out of this arm to get it to function at least sub optimally:

 

And that's my arm. I'm happy with it so far.

 

 

 

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By Renosis
@ Sat, 2010-09-25 23:56
Renosis's picture
I was waiting on a delivery all day of a bunch of parts for my arm and another project I want to start. I check the mailbox at 5pm and find a "sorry we missed you" note.... I am so disappointed. Now I have to wait till monday to get the parts. I must not have heard the doorbell or something. Its unusual though, because they usually just ring and run, leaving the package at the door. Not today though, I guess they needed a signature. There are still a few things I can work on, so it is not a total loss.
By eclipse
@ Wed, 2010-09-22 21:22

Hey hey,

Nice arm, i especially like the base joint and half the first segment.

The gripper seems quite simple though, are you planning on improving it?

@everyone: if you have a nice and simple gripper (with 2 micro servo's) i'd like to know.

By Renosis
@ Wed, 2010-09-22 22:01
Renosis's picture

Yeah, I haven't quite decided what to do for a gripper. I just threw the current temporary one together with some electrical tape. It is very non-functional at the moment. I am using two microservos for my temporary gripper, which are kind of hard to see behind the tape. I don't even know how to begin building a permanent gripper that will actually function.

Thanks for the Comment!