Difference between revisions of "RobotArtist"

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(Team Cyborg:)
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[[File:RoboArtistMatlabFiles.zip]]
 
[[File:RoboArtistMatlabFiles.zip]]
  
The goal of our project was to use our robot arm to draw a circle inscribed in a square. For our arm we connected a steel dowel to a servomotor, our “lower arm”, and a plastic arm, which we had designed on solid works and printed using a 3-d printer, to a motor as well, our “lower arm”. Using screws we connected the two parts together to create our arm. We then used a clamp to attach the arm to the table. The pencil was placed at the end of the plastic part. Originally, the mark the pencil made was too light, so we screwed the pencil into the arm and taped a wrench to the plastic part to add weight to that section of the arm. Also, our motors burned out a couple of times and the new motors we used were not calibrated properly, so our circle was more of an oval.  
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The goal of our project was to use our robot arm to draw a circle inscribed in a square. For our arm we connected a steel dowel to a servomotor, our “lower arm”, and a plastic arm, which we had designed on solid works and printed using a 3-d printer, to a motor as well, our “upper arm”. Using screws we connected the two parts together to create our arm. We then used a clamp to attach the arm to the table. The pencil was placed at the end of the plastic part. Originally, the mark the pencil made was too light, so we screwed the pencil into the arm and taped a wrench to the plastic part to add weight to that section of the arm. Also, our motors burned out a couple of times and the new motors we used were not calibrated properly, so our circle was more of an oval.  
  
 
Team Members:
 
Team Members:

Revision as of 13:09, 15 November 2012

Introduction

In this lab students designed a robot arm, controlled by MATLAB, that can draw pictures.

Teams

Team Bagel:

Team Blue Steel:

The Blue Steel Robot BlueSteelRobot.jpg


Preliminary Designs BlueSteelDesign1.jpg


The purpose of this lab was to design a robot arm capable of drawing a square inscribed within a circle. To do this, we used servo motors, which sent pulses dictating the angle to which the arm of the robot would rotate. We built the foundation of the robot using a piece of aluminum, two bolts, and two washers. The foundation was attached to the table using a "c" clamp to ensure that the robot would not move while drawing. Elevated above the foundation was one of two servo motors bolted onto a platform. Screwed to the servo motor was an aluminum rod, which acted as the forearm, connecting both servo motors, which served as the elbow joint and the wrist joint. Attached to the second servo motor was a solid works piece which functioned as a hand and held the pencil using a screw. When we first ran the robot, we encountered a design flaw in that the marks the pencil was making on the paper were too light to be seen. To fix this, we tightened the screw holding the pencil in the hole in an effort to keep it in place. This was an effective solution because on our second trial the marks of the pencil became visible. Beyond this minor setback, no other design problems were encountered.


Proof of the Success of our Robot : Youtube Video Matlab Script File:ServoCalibrateBlueSteelAndrewAfternoon.m


The Team of Sith Lords:


Team Unspecified Objects:

Team Unspecified Objects

Team GOAR:

It's about to get goar-y.

Zip file:

File:E5 Lab 8 Code GOAR.zip The Artistic Robot Arm Team GOAR

Our Design: In designing our robot arm our goal was to have an arm with two different joints that could ultimately draw a circle inscribed in a square. We tried to find parts that went well together. Originally, we used a bracket to encase the motor and give the first joint of the arm its range of motion. During construction, the bracket seemed like the sturdier option. However, upon completing the arm, we noticed that it allowed for vertical instability; the first joint was not wholly rigid. Therefore, we decided to remove the bracket and attach the first arm to the motor with a washer.

The washer was then attached to a metal tube that made up the first arm. The other side of the first arm was attached to a metal shelf-bracket that held the second motor. The second motor, in turn, was connected to the plastic robot arm created earlier in the semester. This arm holds the pencil.

RA.jpg

Team Not the Incredibles

Initially, we were not convinced that it would be possible for the arm to draw a circle and square because of the limited rotation of the motors. We decided to position one at a right angle to the other, to maximize the range of points that we could reach. At first we had defined the metal arm as the second arm, but then realized that the plastic arm would probably not be long enough to support it. Structurally, we also had issues with the arm wobbling, so needed to use different screws. We had physical difficulties matching parts that fit together. We also encountered problems with malfunctioning motors and shields. In the end, the joint between the two arm sections was still too weak to provide sufficient support, causing the hand to sag. It continues to move shakily, scribbling as it draws. Rounding errors were problematic in our code because when we tested the angles even the correct angle appeared wrong. Inverse Kin function was giving us the right magnitude, but at times the negative value of what it should have been.Because of inconsistent negation of angles in the code, the arm moved fast and jerkily so that lines drawn were incoherent. Results of inverse sine or cosine imaginary, preventing us from being able to compute the sine or cosine of those angles.

File:NOT.The.Incredible.zip

Team No Name:

Change name of team in line above, add links to team member pages, and add a link to your writeup wiki page.

Team Cyborg:

File:RoboArtistMatlabFiles.zip

The goal of our project was to use our robot arm to draw a circle inscribed in a square. For our arm we connected a steel dowel to a servomotor, our “lower arm”, and a plastic arm, which we had designed on solid works and printed using a 3-d printer, to a motor as well, our “upper arm”. Using screws we connected the two parts together to create our arm. We then used a clamp to attach the arm to the table. The pencil was placed at the end of the plastic part. Originally, the mark the pencil made was too light, so we screwed the pencil into the arm and taped a wrench to the plastic part to add weight to that section of the arm. Also, our motors burned out a couple of times and the new motors we used were not calibrated properly, so our circle was more of an oval.

Team Members:

Team ExtraDubious:

Team Members:

When we were calibrating and constructing our robot arm, we used a motor connected to an "upper arm" of 15cm, and a second motor with a "lower arm" connected to the end of the upper arm. We tried to make a right arm, but somewhere we messed up with the calibration so it is backwards which unfortunately does not allow as much motion. When both arms were at 0 degrees, the whole arm was straight out. Looking back, it would have been better if 0 was a 90 degree angle instead. When we were writing the code to test, we continually ran in to problems with motors and connecting to the calibration. We realized that we wanted to have a for loop that would update the position of the arms using the invKin function. Our invKin function worked before in the previous lab, but we often received errors when working with our actual robot arm. We had code for both a circle and a square, but they would not work properly. A major issue that we were unable to overcome was matching up the distance we put in and having the arm move the appropriate length. For example, we would type in for the arm to move a centimeter to the left, but the arm would instead only move a tenth of a centimeter. By the end, we were able to make a small triangle using a for loop and our functions. Given more time, we believe we could have worked out all the bugs so that we could make a larger circle inscribed in a square.

Team Cool Robot:

Team Members:


When we were calibrating and constructing our robot arm, we used a motor connected to an "upper arm" of 15cm, and a second motor with a "lower arm" connected to the end of the upper arm. We tried to make a right arm, but somewhere we messed up with the calibration so it is backwards which unfortunately does not allow as much motion. When both arms were at 0 degrees, the whole arm was straight out. Looking back, it would have been better if 0 was a 90 degree angle instead. When we were writing the code to test, we continually ran in to problems with motors and connecting to the calibration. We realized that we wanted to have a for loop that would update the position of the arms using the invKin function. Our invKin function worked before in the previous lab, but we often received errors when working with our actual robot arm. We had code for both a circle and a square, but they would not work properly. A major issue that we were unable to overcome was matching up the distance we put in and having the arm move the appropriate length. For example, we would type in for the arm to move a centimeter to the left, but the arm would instead only move a tenth of a centimeter. By the end, we were able to make a small triangle using a for loop and our functions. Given more time, we believe we could have worked out all the bugs so that we could make a larger circle inscribed in a square.

Project 6: Robot Artist