I'm an Italian twenty-something guy with a necessity to build a robotic arm and no idea how complicated it could be.
I need an arm that emulates clicking/tapping where I can input intervals in ms between "clicks/taps". No multi axis or smooth movements required. It can be as ugly as hell since it should simply test my lab experiments until they fail. I'm sorry but I don't know the technical terms to describe this machine..
I have a degree in medicine so almost no programming backgournd. But I have a lot of skilled friends!
Here's some question:
- Is there an existing project/guide I can follow that suits my needs?
- If not, what's the closest thing I can start with?
- How much can cost something alike?
Thanks in advace you all folks! I've seen some pretty cool stuff in the "robots" section, congrats you all!
I would be happy to share what I know, but your post leaves more questions than answers. This sounds like an intriguing problem that will be fun to think about.
If you would, please describe exactly what you are trying to do. Tell us what you do now, then tell us what you would like this machine to do for you instead. Then tell us how hard the “clicks/taps” have to be, what the material is that it will be clicking or tapping on, how accurate the ms timing has to be, how often that timing has to change, what you have for input of those values (PC, Mac, phone), how long the machine has to run while you do experiments, will you eventually need or would supporting right now more than one “tapper” be very beneficial, what you expect the usage of it will be (will it run 24 hours a day for many years, or likely to run a few hours each month), and also what your friends know and are comfortable with. The last may push toward different hardware solution.
If you have pictures of your experiment, that may help as well.
thanks for your reply. I can’t share any picture but here’s the answer to your questions
1) I have to press a button in a given sequence when I recognize a pattern of movements in a mouse. There’s no software, chipset or any kind of electricity involved. Just me and a bunch of plastic
2) I’d like the machine to press the button in a given sequence (I have different sequence to use) when I press a “start button”
3) Taps are easy, like tapping on a smartphone. It’s a glass/plastic button, feels like the trackpad of a laptop. Too much pressure would break it
4) Accuracy: ±1 ms would be awesome, 10ms is ok though
5) There are often “double taps” I try to do as fast as I can (which I assume is probably 1/10th-1/20th of a second)
6) input: i own an iPhone and a mac
7) the machine should run for 1 to 2 minutes at a time, 5 times a day monday to friday.
8) “will you eventually need or would supporting right now more than one “tapper” be very beneficial” I don’t think so
9) I can tell you what they can code but I have no idea what hardware knowledge they have. Can you tell me something to ask them?
Well, -=S=-, that’s pretty neat! I think it can work. As I mentioned the surface of the button is made of plastic/glass, is there a more “gentle” version of these “pistons”? I’m very afraid for the poor glossary
There are many types of solenoids, you can choose one to suit your needs.
You don’t have to worry about solenoid hiting too hard your button/surface because you can put the solenoid at a right distance to touch you button only as hard/gentle as you need. Besides, I suppose you will have some kind of a soft tip (soft rubber maybe) attached to the solenoid.
I am wondering if your input device could be opened up and/or if it has wires that connect it to something else. If that is a “real” switch, ie something with contacts that connect when you press the button, that might make things a lot easier. Your friends might be able to open the button up and solder wires to it. Then an electrical pulse instead of your finger could setup the sequence of pulses sent. You could use a microcontroller to send a pulse of electricity instead of the button being pushed to make the input. If the voltages are different, you might need to use a relay to connect between the two wires if there are physical wires. Otherwise, Sebathorus’s suggestion of a solenoid with a rubber button on the end of it would be the way to go to actually make the contact with the device. That will be very finicky and take time to make work though. It would be much easier to be able to hack the input device like I suggest if you can do that.
Also, if this device is input into your Macintosh or iPhone, your friends may be able to write a program that will mimic what it sends to the control program. Then this would be a completely software solution. So instead of a bunch of clicks on the device, you click one button for each behavior sequence on the screen of your Mac. You never said that, so I will assume not.
Since you want something with plus or minus a millisecond timing, you will need a microcontroller to get that. You will also need something written on your Mac or iPhone which can connect via a serial link to the microcontroller to tell it to change the time between pulses. I would suggest an Arduino as a microcontroller unless your friends have a preference since there is so much software out there, it would make your project pretty easy to finish. You might be able to use the software that is used to program the controller as a way to input data instead of having your friends write a separate program to do that.
You might want a little dashboard with pushbuttons. For each pattern the mice perform, you could have a separate button which would then transmit the sequence to the actual input device. If your friends are real good with vision control software, they might be able to take you out of the whole thing and identify the mouse behavior patterns via vision and push that input to the device you want. That would be difficult unless the behavior patterns you are looking for are if the mouse goes to certain place, gets food or water, completes the maze etc. Any nuanced behavior patterns would be very difficult to write a program for.
Good luck. I hope this helps. Let us know how you make out please.
