I've been giving up lunchtimes to go and test it, it's definitely bordering on obsession! I just love the way it looks, the way it moves, everything. There's always a certain attachment when you have made something yourself, it makes all of the hard work and graft worthwhile.
The arm has it's full six points of rotation, the program runs smoothly and the ergonomic controller I made looks awesome. I liken it to the shoulder of a steam-punk robot, it looks like it has valves! The arm is fairly functional in terms of lifting and manipulating things. I want to try and get it to draw or something, but that will have to wait for another time! It can't lift anything too heavy, but it can easily cope with a wheel of tape or other things of similar weight. I have had it take the glasses off of someones face (with permission!), so there is definitely a level of accuracy there!
I can't wait to bring it home so that I can run it using my Arduino, this will make it much more intuitive and would open up options such as controlling it with an accelerometer or other analog inputs. I can get it to do my homework for me (Just Kidding!).
Now as I said before I have been filming a Timelapse of the process, below is the finished and edited version of that Timelapse! Enjoy!
SO! Would I recommend it as a project? If you have experience with electronics, Microcontroller programming and mechanisms; then definitely! It's a really fun project to complete and you get something out of it that is a pretty rare site apart from in industry. You also get something out of it that you will be able to use in lots of other things, an Arm is so versatile that you can use it for testing and experimenting with all other types of electronics! Definitely one to impress your mates with!
So the only thing to think of now is, what to do next? I was thinking a CNC Router!
Until next time!