Miniature Remote controlled Robotic Arm

A remote controlled cute little miniature version of a robotic arm which can sit on your table and pick up your eraser when you drop it.

I've always been fascinated by Industrial Robotic arms. They are so simple yet complicated ! And I wanted to try and make one from the ground up without any help. Kind of wanted to simplify it and work with what I got.

Planning

At the moment, I had only two servos and 1 stepper motor. So, I needed to build the whole thing with nothing but those. So, I fired up Max and started working on the blueprint.

It's like a prototype that I like to create virtually - Which give me the Idea on How the real thing should be built ! And also, I can change stuffs easily here if things dont work out and improve the overall model if I need to. So, I found a way to create a cute little robotic mechanical arm with only the things I got. This would be able to pick up things with the help of that mouth and move ut around. Pretty simple stuff ! And with this, the prototype was ready !!

Building

Now, All I had to do is to is to recreate this thing in real life. I chose to make it out of old recycled cardboard from product boxes lying here and there.
Just cutting out the shape was not enough as I had to add extra layers to build a structure which can stand still and support the heavy weights.
Anyway, slowly and slowly everything was being made. I was using hot glue to put them together - which wasn't as easy as I thought it would be since everything was coming apart every minute !! Who knew hot glue was so weak against these things ?
But I found a way - and the things were looking good. I finished with the main arm and attached the servo. It was looking structurally strong and it was working !

I created the joints and the other parts.
I was using the stepper motor at the base to help rotate the whole thing which gave me the advantage to be able to move it 360° all the way around. And it turned out to be pretty strong ! That was good.
After making all the different parts separately. It was time to merge them all together ! I used hot glue and various different techniques to put them in place and I was surprised how structurally strong it was and could move around such heavy loads.

Click here to watch the 'Cinematic Showcase'

But I had a problem ! The servo which made the Mouth work. Stopped working - so, I had to disassemble and replace it. While the extra servos were being delivered - I was checking the rest of the body and built the remote communication system ! And It was working fine !!
The idea was to have remote communicate wirelessly with the system and be able to control it !

Now, would you look at that ? A robotic arm being controlled wirelessly with a remote. Now, I can finally pour sugar in my coffee with a click of button !! Doesn't look good right now, but gets the job done !
As days passed by I finally got the extra servos delivered ! And I replaced the defected one.
With this done - The whole thing was now functional !!
I could finally hold and move stuffs with it. Apart from relocating stuffs, it could do all kinds of crazy things. Idk, your imagination is the limit. Just press a button and it will record a series of actions and movements - repeat it again and again. Pretty neat !

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