I am a beginner about arduino platform. I want to design small robot to move some object such as a small ball in an three axis (x, y, z axis) space system. in each axis, i want to use 1 mm as the scale. Therefore, i can control the position of this small object by my computer. in my perspective, to achieve this project, i should have three stepper motors and convert the rotation into linear motion. But i do not know how to make this kind of transformation. should i use some gears with different sizes?
There are several ways, rack and pinion gears will give you a linear transformation, pin in slot will give you linear motion but a sinusoidal transform, and a hard link from an arm on the motor the actuator, that will also be sinusoidal I think. And there must be 50 other ways.
The image that comes to mind is a 3D printer, you have a gantry that holds/supports ball and taht gantry itself has a stepper motor for side to side (1 axis), then you have that system - 2 axis - driven front to back via a stepper motor, and then your have a third stepper motor driving the entire system - 3 axis - up and down.