Hello everyone.
Like many of you i love to program, hack (Personally fell in love with Nottingham Hackspace, its awesome!) and make stuff for fun but what i always wanted to have was a robot that i could use right next to me on my desktop, so I'm here to talk to you about desktop robotics and ultimately see what you all think of my robot arm HEW.
Photographs of 4 coloured versions HEW-DV4
This is HEW-DV4, i've designed and built him in my spare time so that like many others I had my own robot arm to make projects with. He is a 5-axis robot arm with a 1-axis gripper (More grippers and external axises to come!). Has a lightweight, durable and strong body, can reach just over 25cm with a payload rating of 250 grams and Features an all metal gear servo design.
The ultimate goal behind HEW was to make my own robot from scratch that was usable, i.e. it had a good working range, could pick up objects and was easy to build. But along the way i through many other people would quite like this as well. So i started to play round with some different ideas such as customers choice, like different colours, grippers, mobility and power options. Hence why i am here. I'd like to show you HEW to see what you think and what your feedback is.
Does he look good, do you like his working range, the colour options? What are your thoughts?
So what can he do? Well that's entirely up to you really, however I have some examples of how i've used HEW so far; to make a cup of tea, play chess, play a guitar, a keyboard, pick and place objects, pass us tools, hand out cards and controlled him using a USB controller it's all really fun stuff.
How do you control him? Controlling servos is quite simple, most servo motors use a standard PWM control method where 1mS (1 milliSecond) sets the position to 0 degrees, upto 2.5mS sets the position to 180 degrees with control of anywhere in between. Most micro-controllers (Dev-boards) such as the BBC Micro-bit, Mbed or Arduino have standard PWM outputs, platforms such as the Raspberry Pi have easy to use libraries which enable you to use GPIO for PWM outputs.
From this we found that HEW isn't just good for makers and programmers, schools & colleges could use him to create really innovative and interactive programming lessons which would be fun and not to mention cool! but also for use in other STEM subjects. Universities and students could use him for rapid & easy prototyping or for use in their final year project, and for the maker/hacker for making all sorts of awesome and cool projects.
I hope you like the idea and HEW himself. Please tells us what you think.
Ultimately if you'd like one your self we've started a kickstarter campaign which you can find here: http://kck.st/1QhyA4C , Here you will find lots more detail into the technical side and how I designed him. back us today and get your very own desktop robot.
Thank you for reading.
Kai
Kai Longshaw.
0
replies
Hello everyone.
Like many of you i love to program, hack (Personally fell in love with Nottingham Hackspace, its awesome!) and make stuff for fun but what i always wanted to have was a robot that i could use right next to me on my desktop, so I'm here to talk to you about desktop robotics and ultimately see what you all think of my robot arm HEW.
This is HEW-DV4, i've designed and built him in my spare time so that like many others I had my own robot arm to make projects with. He is a 5-axis robot arm with a 1-axis gripper (More grippers and external axises to come!). Has a lightweight, durable and strong body, can reach just over 25cm with a payload rating of 250 grams and Features an all metal gear servo design.
The ultimate goal behind HEW was to make my own robot from scratch that was usable, i.e. it had a good working range, could pick up objects and was easy to build. But along the way i through many other people would quite like this as well. So i started to play round with some different ideas such as customers choice, like different colours, grippers, mobility and power options. Hence why i am here. I'd like to show you HEW to see what you think and what your feedback is.
Does he look good, do you like his working range, the colour options? What are your thoughts?
So what can he do? Well that's entirely up to you really, however I have some examples of how i've used HEW so far; to make a cup of tea, play chess, play a guitar, a keyboard, pick and place objects, pass us tools, hand out cards and controlled him using a USB controller it's all really fun stuff.
How do you control him? Controlling servos is quite simple, most servo motors use a standard PWM control method where 1mS (1 milliSecond) sets the position to 0 degrees, upto 2.5mS sets the position to 180 degrees with control of anywhere in between. Most micro-controllers (Dev-boards) such as the BBC Micro-bit, Mbed or Arduino have standard PWM outputs, platforms such as the Raspberry Pi have easy to use libraries which enable you to use GPIO for PWM outputs.
From this we found that HEW isn't just good for makers and programmers, schools & colleges could use him to create really innovative and interactive programming lessons which would be fun and not to mention cool! but also for use in other STEM subjects. Universities and students could use him for rapid & easy prototyping or for use in their final year project, and for the maker/hacker for making all sorts of awesome and cool projects.
I hope you like the idea and HEW himself. Please tells us what you think.
Ultimately if you'd like one your self we've started a kickstarter campaign which you can find here: http://kck.st/1QhyA4C , Here you will find lots more detail into the technical side and how I designed him. back us today and get your very own desktop robot.
Thank you for reading. Kai