I recently started with arduino, recently meaning two days ago, and I have a project in mind that I would like to attempt. I am currently attending college so I this is a sort of a long-term project. I would like to create a robotic arm....from scratch. Of course I will use any help I can get, but I do not want to copy part for part an existing design. What I had in mind would be a rotating base, two joints, and then the claw. So four servos in total. Furthermore, I currently have an arduino uno. Would this be possible? Any recommendations for some places to get started?
Servos take very little bandwidth so an Arduino can easily control a dozen of them. Check out the standard "Servo" library.
You'll want to provide a good DC power supply for the servos because the motors can draw a lot of power when they are running. Check the servo specs for power requirements. If the power supply also falls within the appropriate range for the Arduino you can run everything off the same supply.
I am currently attending college so I this is a sort of a long-term project. I would like to create a robotic arm....from scratch. Of course I will use any help I can get, but I do not want to copy part for part an existing design. What I had in mind would be a rotating base, two joints, and then the claw.
Draw a picture of the arm you are envisioning. Then, compare it to available arms. Pay particular attention to the number of joints.
Thanks for the help so far. So i was thinking probably a rotating base, two elbow joints, and a claw. so four servos.
would this be a wise choice for controlling the servos?
You will also want to consider how you are controlling the arm. Do you want to send data through the serial monitor to the arduino, and make it do something? Or do you plan on writing a program using something else PC based, like processing, then making that send control data to the arm? Or will you have a control panel with some variable resistors on it, so you can change the position of the servo with them?
Make yourself familiar with the servo library, go through the example sketches on the learning page, and most importantly, experiment and have fun!
We wrote a own servo library , with characteristics own for the robotic arm, how to limit of angle of diferent servos, and positioning using vetores and coordinates cartesian.
And we're creating a system that calculate necessary movement of each servo in relation the an specific coordinate, that is implementing in our own library.
I liked very much, of robotic claw, that you showed to me, thanks.
Wow, you wrote your own version of the servo library!? That sounds incredibly difficult!
I am interested as to how the co-ordinates system works, as that sounds even harder. Surely the angle you need to set the servo to would depend on the legnth of the robot arm, and that would vary between projects? Did you hardwire in the details of the arm legnth, or make the user put them in on startup? I am very interested...
And with the co-ordinate system, is it in 2D, where the co-ordinaes represent an x and y location, or x, y and z? Are the axis marked out invisibly, where the 'home position' is (0,0(,0)), then the scale goes along in cm from the 'home position'?
I am very interested by this!