Prior Work Research

Robotic arms and motor control systems are nothing new. Instead of reinventing the wheel, I’m going to look at prior work done by others and see what I can incorporate into the OSRJ project. Below are some other projects that include components and ideas that I think will be useful. Projects are in no particular order.

• Mechaduino
  • Integrated stepper motor servo drive unit with magnetic encoder
  • Fits on back of stepper motor
  • Selling for $49 for just the PCB
  • Uses SAMD21 MCU
  • i2c or serial control
• 3D Printable Robot Arm - Large
  • Larger than most robot arm projects
  • Uses stepper motors
  • Fully 3D printed design
  • Attempted a harmonic drive but it didn’t work
  • On the slow side
• ODrive
  • Open source brushless motor driver
  • Brushless motors provide more power and speed
  • Encoder feedback and regenerative braking
  • Multiple control protocols
• Thor Open Source Robotic Arm
  • Fully 3D printed structure
  • Uses stepper motors
  • 62.5 cm long and can lift 750 grams
  • Designed with education in mind
  • ~$430 build cost
  • Not bad speed from demo video
• MeArm
  • Low cost (~$35) RC servo driven arm
  • I have one and have created a control shield for it
  • Small range and lifting capacity
  • Made from laser cut acrylic