RobotArtist

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Revision as of 11:41, 15 November 2012 by Kbledso1 (Talk | contribs) (Team Unspecified Objects:)

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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.

Team Robocop:

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

Team Cyborg:

Team Members: Casey Drubin Abigail Ruggles Spencer Friske Kathy Sun David Ranshous

Team ExtraDubious:

Team Members: Madison Heppe Matt Hirsh Shaina Lu Bennet Thompson