WE-R2.4 Six-Axis Robot Arm

thingiverse

This robot arm is a scaled-down version of the UR3 industrial robot, with a design philosophy centered around placing motor/reducer actuators at each joint. Six such units are stacked up to form a 6-axis arm, mirroring the UR3's hollow torque motors and harmonic drives. However, this robot uses stepper motor/compound planetary actuators instead, which can be found in https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3293562. Two of these large actuators serve as base joints, one medium-sized actuator handles the elbow joint, and three small ones are used for the wrist joints. The gripper utilized is available at https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3116728. Seven Pololu Tic T500 stepper controllers with custom firmware are employed to manage coordinated motion. Detailed information on this setup, including a Windows test utility program, can be accessed through https://drive.google.com/open?id=1rKRuWC4jAOekrds_WGUC7DkwlVsk2zdb. This project is still in development and requires further refinement. Questions regarding any aspects of the build process should be posted in the comments section to facilitate collaboration. Please review all available materials before commencing construction, as this is not an easy weekend project. Videos showcasing the arm's capabilities can be found at https://youtu.be/7u_UjMB8tJI and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tEbJV32GyYU by jlauer. Another video detailing his custom controller board development is available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RdmdFIhCo4M. For anyone interested in contributing to the arm's continued development, a discussion forum has been set up by Thingiverse user jlauer: https://forum.makerforums.info/c/ChiliPeppr/robot-arm. An updated version of the small wrist actuator with improved torque, reduced backlash, and smoother operation is available at https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3566678.