Robotic Arm

Having explored a purely mechanical system with the passive walker, I wanted to gain more experience with electronics and motors. So, I built a robotic arm that is controlled using a mini-arm.

In building this project, I faced many new challenges. The arm is controlled by servo motors, and I used different strength servos for different joints. I controlled all the motors using an arduino and a motor shield, and used Arduino C++ for the code. I soldered everything myself, and I implemented a power switch between the power supply and the motor shield.

I also learned a lot by building the mini arm (the smaller blue hand-controlled part in the video). In the smaller arm, there is a potentiometer at each joint, which can read angle changes. I then map these angle changes to the servo motors so that the larger arm mirrors the movement of the smaller arm. I added a button on the smaller arm that can open and close the 'hand' of the larger arm.