uArm??An open source robot arm


uArm? is a small Palletizing Robot refer to ABB PalletPack IRB 460. You can also use it as a robot arm and make a development of it to make more interesting applications.

In order to make it more flexible and easy driving, I have also designed two kinds of Chassis of the robot arm.
One is a simple 2WD car as you can see in the following picture.

The other one is a 4WD car. I have added 4 Shock Absorbers on it as you can see in the following picture.

So you can install the robot arm on the Chassis and use this platform to do further applications on the ground.
Next, a special gripper for this robot arm is in designing and will be updated soon.

How do you get one of the arms?

PaulS:
How do you get one of the arms?

Hi PaulS,

I have made the design and used the laser cutter machine to build the arm by myself. And I am making improvement of it now.

This is a pretty neat little arm; I like the fact that you put most of the servos at the base of the arm, rather than at the joints like you see so often (now, if you could do the same with that last servo - heh)...

I would love to have a copy of the file(s) for laser cutting; I just recently joined my local TechShop (Chandler, Arizona) and finished the SBU for their Universal Laser Systems cutter. I've got lots of ideas for things to build with it, but one more project wouldn't hurt...

Actually - I realize you probably aren't going to give away the files; it sounds like you are starting a business, so I can respect that. One of my future projects for the laser cutter is to actually build a clone Armdroid (well, as close as I can come to one given the information available on it) - but that would be a very complex project, not something I intend to tackle today!

Great job on your robots, though! I think the arm looks best on the 4WD base (seems like it would be more stable with a load, too).

Hmm - how about building a translational (linear movement) base? Such a base movement system is often used in industry for assembly line work and other work where the arm needs to translate linearly along or with the work piece...

cr0sh:
This is a pretty neat little arm; I like the fact that you put most of the servos at the base of the arm, rather than at the joints like you see so often (now, if you could do the same with that last servo - heh)...

I would love to have a copy of the file(s) for laser cutting; I just recently joined my local TechShop (Chandler, Arizona) and finished the SBU for their Universal Laser Systems cutter. I've got lots of ideas for things to build with it, but one more project wouldn't hurt...

Actually - I realize you probably aren't going to give away the files; it sounds like you are starting a business, so I can respect that. One of my future projects for the laser cutter is to actually build a clone Armdroid (well, as close as I can come to one given the information available on it) - but that would be a very complex project, not something I intend to tackle today!

Great job on your robots, though! I think the arm looks best on the 4WD base (seems like it would be more stable with a load, too).

Hmm - how about building a translational (linear movement) base? Such a base movement system is often used in industry for assembly line work and other work where the arm needs to translate linearly along or with the work piece...

Hi cr0sh,

Thanks for your suggestions. We are now make an improvement of this robot arm and your suggestions are quite helpful for us.

As we call this open source robot arm. So of course we will make it open and release both the design of the mechanical and electronic with the final source files after we finish this project.

If you want to build one by yourself, we can send you the files after we finish the project. So that more and more people can join us to make a better robot arm and further applications for this.

Thanks for your suggestions again.

We have made the second version of uArm?. In this version, you can change the head of the arm, so the fourth servo on the head of the arm can face down and forward by different install ways. A special robot gripper is in designing. See more details below.

Here is the design which I refer to, the World's Fastest Palletising Robot - ABB IRB 460.

The acrylic parts of new version of uArm? v1.1 is arriving now.

From now on, there are two kinds of choices for the head of the robot arm.
One is a sucker and the other is a servo for installing robot gripper on it. You can see two of them in the following picture.

On the other hand, there are also two ways to install the head to the robot arm. One is to face down and the other is to face forward. The following picture shows the parts for different install ways.

Install the sucker to the head of the robot arm.

Install the servo motor to the head of the robot arm.

The second way for installing.

As we call this open source robot arm. So of course we will make it open and release both the design of the mechanical and electronic with the final source files after we finish this project.

Excellent... thank you.

Not sure where you are storing your pictures, but they are not downloading for me using IE, I just get an X displayed. I like the design of keeping the servos off of the arm as much as possible.

Very attractive work, sincerely.

The fact of keeping servomotors in the base allows to limit the efforts on each, it is very ingenious.

zoomkat:
Not sure where you are storing your pictures, but they are not downloading for me using IE, I just get an X displayed. I like the design of keeping the servos off of the arm as much as possible.

We are so glad that you like our design, we are making a development of this robot arm and will make an update soon.

albaflo:
Very attractive work, sincerely.

The fact of keeping servomotors in the base allows to limit the efforts on each, it is very ingenious.

:slight_smile: We are making an improvement now. Will make an update soon.

The second test of uArm?, in this version we add 4 suckers on the chassis of the arm to mount it on smooth surface.

After a few days of improvement work, we have made some new designs of the robot arm. Make some changes of the structure to make the arm stable. Add a small gripper and the new sucker holder. Then we decide to try some other materials to make the robot arm. So we got a laser cut Basswood one.

Here is the laser cut Basswood parts.

Do the assembling.

The finish Basswood uArm.

More details of this arm.

Here the small gripper and the new sucker holder.

Change the head of the arm and install the gripper on the arm.

What’s more, we also made a transparent one by acrylic this time.

Here is the way that you can install the sucker with the new holder on the robot arm.

So far, we have 3 uArm?, the black acrylic one, the basswood one and the transparent acrylic one.

More testing videos and improvements will be updated soon. We are going to make this arm better, more stable and more accurate.

I need one....

Seriously guys, this is awesome work.

I know you still want to test and improve, but I would really love to get my hands on one soon! When do you anticipate release?

As we call this open source robot arm. So of course we will make it open and release both the design of the mechanical and electronic with the final source files after we finish this project.

If you want to build one by yourself, we can send you the files after we finish the project.

Will a project like this ever be finished though? 8)

EDIT: I'd be happy to consider the version shown

Would be nice to publish the arm frame plans in a pdf format which could be printed out on standard printer paper (larger parts might have to be split between two sheets of paper). I like the wood arm frame as wood can be easily worked with simple tools. 2'x2' sheets of 5.2mm lauan plywood are available at the US home improvement stores for ~$3.

Yep zk- although I've made contact with a local laser cutting outfit, I've been wondering about doing it manually too. Looks like a shit-house full of parts to work by hand, though.

I'd like to see a pdf of just one part, to give it a whirl.