Society of Robots - Robot Forum

Mechanics and Construction => Mechanics and Construction => Topic started by: ain on October 30, 2008, 09:22:42 PM

Title: need some advise and suggestion
Post by: ain on October 30, 2008, 09:22:42 PM

hi everyone...
i'm beginner in this robotics field and this is my first project. i have to design a robot manipulator which is hand comprising 2 fingers and a thumb with 2 degrees of freedom using air muscle. then, in my project, the motor controller is not needed, however through the use of encoder, the position of the robot could be determined and the force of the air muscle could be calculated. hopefully, all of you guys can help me with some advise and suggestion about my project. thanks a lot.. :).. :)

Title: Re: need some advise and suggestion
Post by: Webbot on October 30, 2008, 10:00:17 PM

Don't want much then?!

Perhaps you should tell us how YOU are going to do it - and then ask some more targeted and specific questions?

I'll always try to help those who try to help themselves.

Title: Re: need some advise and suggestion
Post by: ArcMan on October 31, 2008, 01:43:45 PM

You're new to the robotics field and you're making a force-controlled pneumatic gripper.  Wow!

Title: Re: need some advise and suggestion
Post by: hudbrog on October 31, 2008, 02:01:10 PM

Never worked with "air muscles", but I know that it is damn hard to control pneumatic actuators and air overall. It is easy to get it to fully stretched or fully collapsed position, but almsot impossible to get something in between. Sure you can pump some air into actuator, but depending on external force applied to it actuator will stretch differently. And in general you can't predict how much it will stretch with given amount of air.
So... better forget about pneumatics for such projects.

Title: Re: need some advise and suggestion
Post by: jamort on October 31, 2008, 04:33:05 PM

So lets see if I'm reading this right you've designed this and havent started anything? You know what the admin. says DONT plan big for your first project and one reason is you can waste money buying a lot of stuff but whatever you choose good luck....
And idk if I would use pnematics sounds like a servo could handle the job just fine

Title: Re: need some advise and suggestion
Post by: Admin on November 03, 2008, 11:07:00 PM

ain, I agree with and recommend all the comments above 100%.

That being said, the first step would be to look around the web for parts. Find some pneumatic actuators, then an air compressor. Those components alone will probably cost you about ~$300 (I'm not sure what your budget is). Note that the ultra cheap small air compressors are known to be annoyingly loud.

Also, draw up some detailed designs that include every screw, etc.

After you complete those steps, report your progress here and we can offer more advice.