Ppalletizing robot arm on eBay
A few months ago there was a kick starter for the uArm palletizing robot arm. It now it looks like a clone is available on eBay:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Axis-palletizing-robot-manipulator-model-with-no-arduino-servo-control-board-/271275924586?&_trksid=p2056016.l4276
I'm a little on the fence about the design. In theory the linkages reduce the weight of the arm by keeping the elbow servo in the base and eliminating the wrist servo. This should increase payload capacity with the only loss of function being that the wrist is fixed with respect to the ground. This isn't what bothers me since I generally only use the wrist servo to keep the end effector fixed relative to the ground.
What bothers me is that there's now linkages that you didn't need before, and each one probably introduces play, as well as nuts that will work lose with vibration. I suppose loctite fixes the latter while springs could be used to preload the linkages to reduce play.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Axis-palletizing-robot-manipulator-model-with-no-arduino-servo-control-board-/271275924586?&_trksid=p2056016.l4276
I'm a little on the fence about the design. In theory the linkages reduce the weight of the arm by keeping the elbow servo in the base and eliminating the wrist servo. This should increase payload capacity with the only loss of function being that the wrist is fixed with respect to the ground. This isn't what bothers me since I generally only use the wrist servo to keep the end effector fixed relative to the ground.
What bothers me is that there's now linkages that you didn't need before, and each one probably introduces play, as well as nuts that will work lose with vibration. I suppose loctite fixes the latter while springs could be used to preload the linkages to reduce play.
Comments
I recognize that seller (wester2013) as one who sells a lot of humanoid/biped robots, arms & grippers. Fun to look at his many offerings, even if he's not the cheapest seller. A man's gotta eat!
http://www.ebay.com/sch/m.html?_odkw=&item=271275924586&_osacat=0&_ssn=wester2013&_trksid=p2046732.m570.l1313.TR11.TRC1.A0.H0.Xrobot&_nkw=robot&_sacat=0&_from=R40