Hello,
I would like to get your opinion on the new project i’m working on. 1st of, let’s start with the beggining :
My 1st language is French*. I might make mistakes in spelling or the way the sentence is builded. I apologize for that. I’m really trying though
I’m a ‘’ Mecha-warrior-manga-fan ‘’. Some of my ideas can seems ridiculous to alot of people, but hey, at a certain point in history, speaking thru a device that could make you communiquate with someone around the world was ridiculous ( You should see my Blueprint of that 30 footers Landmate from that anime ‘’ Appleseed ‘’ I made last year * Facepalm myself laughing * )
So, there is the question. I wanna build a robotic hand copying my movement. I want to make it agile like a regular hand, fast as a regular hand, and able to crush a pop can if needed too. I was wondering if i should use a Linear Actuator to push and pull the mechanism to move the fingers, or if i should use an electric motor with a threaded shaft to push and pull a cube with a threaded hole in it to make the mechanism move.
I was thinking about using sensors to copy my hand movement, or switch on a outside frame.
The power output is not really important, but i don’t wanna build a 3foot hand to plug it into a 240volt plug in the wall ( I know i know, not fun at all! ). More like a regular size hand.
What do you think I should do? Any suggestions? Ideas?
Crushing a can is not easy… you’ll need some pretty powerful actuators. Since you also want to make it the same size as a real hand, you’ll likely need to place the actuators in the wrist or in the arm.
That’s one in the same principle; DC linear actuators use a threaded rod and traveller to extend and retract. However, this approach is not as fast as a human hand.
There is no right or wrong answer here. You can create an exoskeleton, or even a Kinect (if you are up to the extensive programing involved).
There are a few people who have made life-sized robotic hands which follow their motion, but most are aesthetic and cannot crush a can. Check out YouTube for some inspiration.
What do you think I should do? Any suggestions? Ideas?
The PQ12 series are some of the smallest ones we have, have a stroke of 2cm and pretty good force, depending on the gear ratio. Also dependant on the gears, the actuators can move from the open to closed positions in 1 or 2 seconds with no load.
If you are looking for something more compact, there is the Flexinol Actuator Wire:
These are strands of wire that contract when a current is run through them causing them to heat. Individual strands aren’t that strong, but you can put many of them in parallel to multiple their force. These wires take about a second to contract, but up to a few seconds to expand again depending on the thickness.
We’re not aware of any actuators with particularly coarse threads for faster travel times, so that might be something you can machine.
We don’t have big robot vehicles yet, but we believe that with robotics becoming more and more popular we will start to frequently see amazing products being released soon.
Hmm…really? Are you selling actuators powerfull enough to crush a can if there is 5 combined alltogether doing the same thing and that would be about the right size for my project? What specs I should be looking for?
I saw that this week-end after i readed your post. Thanks for the explanation I should’ve went there 1st i guess before asking questions bwahahaha ( Facepalm myself again laughing ) One thing though…I was wondering if they were making those with coarse thread to make it goes faster. Or if not, maybe I should wait until I start that course in Electromechanic to learn how to build an electric motor so then I can start building the stuff I need.
Oh, I love it! Will do!
Yeah…I saw some and I really got disapointed. I’m still wondering how come we don’t have those 50 tons war machines on the battlefield with lazer guns that run and flip tanks like toys or kick them away like soccerball, or AT-AT like in Star Wars. Not only for war of course, would love to see robots on construction field handling H-Beam like twigs or fireman using them to go in dangerous spots
Technology should be more advanced than that in robotic in my opinion, I feel like it’s at a Stagnant point and nobody wanna push thru it sadly.
I’m looking for some projects to do for my course in ElectroMechanic starting in January. I though a robotic hand could be really nice.
