This robotic arm prepared by Makerspace lab has five degrees of freedom. It is made almost entirely of 3D printed parts that snap together, with three movable joints, a rotating base, and a gripper. An Arduino Uno microcontroller to control the bot while servos were used for the movable joints. The arm is about 20 inches long. The design was optimized to save time during 3d printing, through the use of hollow fill.
The lower and middle joints are controlled using standard servos, whereas the upper joint and gripper are controlled using micro-servos for higher precision. All the servos can be controlled using the microcontroller, one step each, independent of each other. This robotic arm can be used for a variety of research purposes that may require high precision or include hazardous environments. Future plans include making the bot self-reliant by using computer vision and increasing the load-bearing capacity by using new gripper mechanisms such as magnetic holders.
