Project Logs

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• Session 7 (week 45)

  Sylvain • 7 days ago • 0 comments

  07/11: The AX-12A Servos aren't available on the supplier website until mid December so I had to change my plan. Fortunately, I was able to find an alternative type of servos with an equivalent torque (Smart Servos SCS15). However, even if I had the servos I needed some components to control it so I did some research about the utility and the operation of those components.

  I also realized I was late on the schedule. Consequently I will have to work more outside of the class time.

• Session 6 (week 43)

  Sylvain • 10/25/2024 at 12:49 • 0 comments

  25/10: I created a connection between two parts with 2 ball bearings and a shaft but at the end I realized that it will not be possible to be hand directed because of the bearings on the part that is supposed to move. The solution turned out to be the use of a coupling instead of the ball bearing. It has to be fixed on the shaft and on the moving part.
  

• Session 5 (week 42)

  Sylvain • 10/18/2024 at 09:08 • 0 comments

  17/10: I laser cut the parts I modelled for the version 1 of the arm. The modeling was made on Fusion 360 and the material for the cutting is  3mm plywood.

  I then started to work on the mechanism of the arm. The first objective is to be hand directed so I had to think about the different connections needed. I started to work on the 'shoulder' connection. The solution I came with was to use gears, bearings and a shaft to connect the two parts together so I search the different types I could use for my project.

• Session 4 (week 41)

  Sylvain • 10/10/2024 at 20:20 • 0 comments

  10/10: It was the start of the practice. To determine how many motors I needed and detect the potential problems I created a cardboard prototype of the arm. I conclude that I needed 4 servos (3 for the axis of freedom, 1 for the clamp).

  I also did some research on the servos (the torque needed, the precision) and decided to use the AX-12A Dynamixel Servos.

• Session 3 (week 40)

  Sylvain • 10/10/2024 at 20:19 • 0 comments

  03/10: I started my research with some design inspirations and videos of engineers doing their own robots like Jeremy Fielding. I had issues to understand technical parts and to know how and where to start because I had limited knowledge. However, I knew it was normal and the only way to understand was to carry on the work and start the practice part.

• Session 2 (week 39)

  Sylvain • 10/10/2024 at 20:10 • 0 comments

  26/09: I carried on the research about the components and the design. 

  I also had to imagine different scenarios I wanted the final version to be capable of recreate. In the first scenario, the user moves the arm to create a choreography. It doesn't lift any load. For the second level, it's the same thing that the first one but the arm can lift a light load like a dice or a pen. The last one can lift heavier objects and move them from a point to another ( the points can be at different heights).

  I also draw a blueprint of the arm with the different axis of freedom.

• Session 1 (week 38)

  Sylvain • 10/10/2024 at 20:04 • 0 comments

  19/09: I had to choose a project that can be interactive. I selected 2 ideas : create a pinball or upgrade a robotic arm I started last year but I couldn't finish. During my research I realized I didn't want to work on the pinball because I wasn't interested by the technologies needed for it.

  I then started to search inspirations for the arm on what components to use, how to make it move and what was the design I wanted. The conclusion of the session was the possibility to move the arm manually, capture the movements through the servos with feedback and then resend the data to recreate the chorography. 

  The arm has 3 degrees of freedom (1 for the rotation of the base, 1 for the 'shoulder', 1 for the 'elbow'), a clamp and less than 100g of payload. The motors are Dynamixel Servos and a Shield Dynamixel will be need to control the servos with Arduino.

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