Where to start

Community General Discussions
1

Hey guys,

I’m looking to start building small robots in my spare time purely for the entertainment of it. I have some basic experience with electronics in general, but with almost every aspect of robotics it’s safe to assume I have no experience at all. I’m looking for guidance in regards to where one starts when initially getting into this hobby.

What appeals to me most about all this has to be programming the AI. I want to be able to use a laptop to tell the robot what to do from start to finish handling any and all communication between the two machines.

I’m not sure if what I’ve asked already is enough to get a definite answer, so I’ll give a mock scenario to fill in as much detail as I can about specifically what I would like to accomplish.

The Can Mover:

I’d like to build a robotic arm that moves a pop can to either the left, or the right, of the arm depending on the user input. The arm will be connected to the laptop via USB, and the laptop will display a console – typing “move left” attempts to move a pop can to the left of the arm, and typing “move right” moves it to the right of the arm.

You can assume (because it’s true) that I currently own nothing that will be used in creating this robot. With that in mind I’d be grateful if someone could try to answer these questions:

Can I create my can mover with products found only on this website (excluding the laptop/USB cable)? If so, then is there a kit I can buy to acquire most/all of the required materials?

Can I have the desired level of control over AI? Would I need third party libraries? Is there a community out there revolving around this, or would I be on my own?

Do any software development tools come with these kits? I have many of my own tools and could probably start from scratch, but as a beginner I would appreciate something to at least look.

Thanks a bunch for any responses!

2

Hi Patillac,

Welcome to the RobotShop Forum! Robotic arms use one motor per degree of freedom (often two for the base because of added torque). A robot arm with good functionality has 5 degrees of freedom:

]“Shoulder” which rotates and pivots/:m]
]“Elbow” joint/:m]
]“Wrist” joint/:m]
]“Hand” (gripper)/:m]
The Lynxmotion arms are some of the best known small robotic arms around. If you are entirely new to robotics but looking to program, consider the Lynxmotion 5DOF arm with electronics ($293 - free shipping within Canada and USA)

As you become more experienced and look to design your own robots, you will see the price go down. The Lynxmotion arm is a complete package including all mechanics, electronics and cables. It also comes with software that allows you to visualize a mockup robot on the screen you can drag to control the real arm. Lynxmotion also offers RIOS SSC-32 software FREE. All you would need is a serial to USB converter.

As a note, a can is roughly 2.5" and the Lynxmotion gripper is just slightly smaller. You can quickly modify the gripper to suit your needs.

The Joinmax armalso comes with all the parts you will need to start.

These kits cost more than average "toys because they consist of the following parts:

]6 servo motors/:m]
]Servo motor controller and wiring/:m]
]Power regulation and converter/:m]
]Mechanical frame and structure/:m]
]Software/:m]
As a last note, arms such as those above are not meant to lift significant weight. To see what happens, consider lifting a heavy weight close to your body vs. at a distance. Your arm will hurt much more the farther away from your body you hold the weight. The same applies to robot arms (look up “torque”).

Hope this helps.