This week, I want to share a project by an Italian guy who made a robotic arm using Arduino and a graphical touchscreen interface.
With a graphical interface, controlling it will be much easier~
Materials
-
Square aluminum tube (25mm*25mm*1.5mm) -
A strong power supply (2.5A * 5 motors, but we won’t use them all at once) -
Arduino board (using Arduino UNO here) -
HC05 Bluetooth module -
An SG90 servo motor (the one with metal gears) -
5 MG996R servo motors (stronger than SG90) -
Wooden platform (for stability) -
Junction box (for electrical connections)
Step 1: Design and 3D Model
Here we use Fusion 360:
STL/DWG files can be downloaded at the end of the article.
Step 2: The Robotic Arm’s ‘Claw’
You can assemble it using 3mm nuts and bolts. Once assembled, just set the motor to the “0 degrees” position, keep the claw open, place the motor underneath, and tighten all the screws.
Step 3: The Robotic Arm’s ‘Wrist’ (Control Angle and Rotation)
For wrist movement, the arm needs two motors: one to control the wrist angle, and one to control wrist rotation (one for up and down movement, and one for clockwise or counterclockwise rotation).
For the first motor’s seat, it’s necessary to make a seat in the square aluminum tube so that the back of the motor comes out. This motor (like all motors, except for the base and wrist rotation) is mounted with two adapters.
The author made these two adapters using a 3D printer in Fusion 360. Just screw the motor onto the adapter with four bolts, then mount the adapter horizontally to the aluminum material (with special templates for drilling, the files can be downloaded at the end).
Additionally, a 22mm diameter hole (same as the internal size of the aluminum material) needs to be drilled to let the motor plate come out; here it is secured to the claw with four screws.
For the second motor (wrist rotation), it is much more complex. The motor needs to face outward, not toward one side of the aluminum material.
For this reason, the author designed an adapter that