Non-PC controlled Arms

[Laff Riot]

Im interested in talking to someone about a long standing job for a client of mine that involves a small and large arm directly linked one to the other.

There are some interesting aspects such as recording movements and playing them back, but for the most part looking for a direct correlation in movement from one arm to the other.

Anyone interested in taking a swing at this? Advice, diagrams, build for money - I want to get this off my plate.

[Al_The_Man]

What is meant exactly by non-PC? Is it intended as a stand-alone system, like non or minimum intervention?
Is it three axis recording? Is it some sort of profiler?
Al

[pmurray]

I'm with Al_The_Man on this.

Do you mean the use of an embedded controller (custom/semi-custom) or, if possible, something that does not use electronics but, done all mechanically?

Inquiring minds want to know,

plm

[Laff Riot]

Think of it like a dumbed down version of a digitizer directly linked to a robotic arm. If you move a specific joint on the digitizer to X degrees the robot arm will move the exact same number of degrees.

The last person that took a swing at this was considering using potentiometers in the elbows of the control arm to record the movement and feed them back out to servos in the robot arm joints. There is no precision required, its for kids displays.

[trubleshtr]

a small and large arm directly linked one to the other.
.

mechanically linked ? or electricly ?
is this something a person would move his arm that is attached to the first device and the bigger one would mimic it?

[Al_The_Man]

The control would be a cinch with a Galil or Acroloop motion card, They have built in commands that would take care of the motion requirements, but alot more would have to be known on the mechanical requirements etc to give an informed appraisal of the project.
Al

[Laff Riot]

Electrical -vs- Mechanical - It would all boil down to cost over appearance. If your talking about gears and flywheels transferring motion from one arm to another via pulley belts I would be a tad worried about kids nipping off digits. On the other hand it might look bluddy cool to have all that visible motion.

I always assumed it would be an electrical link between control and motor. If its electrical that probably brings us one step closer to save & repeat. I am not biased towards either approach, and will listen to any pro/cons you have on the issue.

Feel free to list out any questions to help narrow down the scope on this. I am not electrically inclined (most of my attempts produce a lot of bluish smoke) so I apologize in advance for needing the questions dumbed down for me & the client.

[2muchstuff]

If not an electrical link between controller and arm then it would have to be radio controlled with some kind of onboard computer. Let me try picturing this. you want a 3 pivot arm (sort of like what they use to spot weld car bodies together at the assembly plants) being controlled by someone thru a computer. With the ability to record the movements made and be able to repeat them. Only on a smaller scale?
At my work, the computer geeks use this thing called a gyro mouse. They use it to move the cursor from screen to screen to screen. Imagine one computer, numerous screens and the ability to pull up any menu on any screen independantly or seperatly or all together, wierd. As I understand it, the gyro mouse creates a 3 axis grid in space. Now what if the "operator" had a similar device in their hand relaying positioning information back to the computer to drive the arm thru a wireless LAN link (ok, now we're up to 2 computers).
As for the arm mechanics, that's easy.

[halfa32]

I would check into a micro pic chip to handle the programing. The Pic18F8520 would do everything you would like to do. The smaller control arm could use potentiometers in the joints to feed the pic chip the range of movement. From there it comes down to programing in C good luck.
Halfa32

[Laff Riot]

Thanks for the ideas, that mouse rocks. If anyone thinks they can pull these into one unit feel free to msg me some quotes.

I have a handle on some programmers that have done applications / interface programming for some kiosks I sold. I will ask them this week if they feel its something they can handle.

I appreciate all the feedback on this project - I'ts been a bear since I have no experience with electronics or mechanics to draw from.