Failed to perform usb plug/unplug with robo arm

Lynxmotion Robot Arms
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Bought the arm specifically for plugging / unplugging USB. Unfortunately, no luck! Can somebody help how this can be resolved?

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Hi @AProkopchuk and welcome to our forum!

Which arm exactly did you buy?

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@AProkopchuk Welcome to the RobotShop Community. As @igor_X indicated, in order to provide help, we’ll need a LOT more details, including:

  • Which arm you purchased
  • What software you are using to control the arm (or is it custom code?)
  • What is the issue you are encountering?
  • Details about the setup in case something is wrong

If you posted in the Lynxmotion category, there’s a chance you purchased either an arm which is part of the AL5 series or the new 4DoF articulated. If this is the case, and you likely purchased the AL5D, are you using FlowArm PLTW for the motion?

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Hello!

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The arm did not have enough servo power to plug in the cable

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Can you provide a video showing what the arm is doing? In order to apply more force, consider moving the base closer to the USB connector. Some USB connectors are harder than others (we have not tried that specific application to have measured the force required to insert and remove a USB cable). In order to achieve this, you may also have to change the motion, the servo’s configurations, how it inserts the USB cable etc.

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Robotics is an engineering field, and so it takes some engineering work to design many systems. Otherwise, you can dump a lot of money to attempt to make something work, only to find that it was impossible with what you purchased. Though, sometimes you can just make a good guess if something will work… provided you have a good feel for the task, and what the equipment is capable of doing. And it is also a great idea to have at least a little over-design, to allow you to cover any under-estimates of the forces. But the greater the cost, the less attractive the trial and error approach is.

One way of getting more force out of your type of robot, is to move the place where you need to apply the force. The more extended the arms are, the greater the force the servos in the joints can apply. So, putting the USB socket out towards the extent of the robot arm’s reach, will make it have greater force.

I don’t know the electronics involved with your robot. But, in some servo system, you can power the motor and its drivers, with a separate power supply. If that is possible in your system, you might be able to increase the voltage to the motors a bit. The general rule for that is no more than an extra 50% of the voltage. But, your motors will quicker to overheat, and the gearing and other physical components may not handle the extra force.

-joe

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Lots of good points @cadcoke5! :slight_smile:

@AProkopchuk
Yeah, you certainly want to quantify better what motion you are making and how much force is required. From there you can determine the best position for the robotic arm’s joint to get maximum force from them.

The LSS specs are available so it shouldn’t be too difficult to determine if this is doable. Also, of course, changing the setup so that gravity assists in doing your task (or, alternatively, is unrelated) can make a big difference.

In this case they are using a robotic arm made up of smart actuators rated for 12 V DC. That been said, I think they can be safely increased to about 14-14.5 V DC. I wouldn’t try a voltage higher than that. As you said though this will make them heat up more for sure.

@AProkopchuk
As for more force, you can also add a gear down to joints in two ways:

Since the LSS uses a magnetic encoder and a virtual position that allows a ridiculous large amount of turns in either direction using gear downed joints is not an issue and can easily increase the torque the arm can produce.

All of this is really a matter of figuring out what part(s) of the arm (if any) is not providing enough force (after optimizing setup, motion, etc.) and upgrade that joint(s).