I'm in the market for a desktop/tabletop 6DoF robotic arm to experiment with, any recommendations? Not certain of uses, but: I might develop custom grippers, repeatability of 0.25 mm or less desired, option to extend workspace with linear rail would be a plus. Thanks!
My personal experience with two different robotic arms (< $500) and some additional research is the lack of high level software and libraries, which is quite crippling as it’s very complex to control.<p>If you’re not used to control theory and inverse dynamics it’s quite tricky to control it (especially at 0.25mm) and you’ll never get to actually use it to perform what you want.<p>You might have better luck with low-end industrial robots but the cheapest are $2500 and more.<p>(I’m similarly in the market if a product can prove me wrong, especially interested in something with some computer vision integration)
A cheap option is one of these sainsmart 6 axis robot arms: <a href="https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B00UMOSQCI" rel="nofollow">https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B00UMOSQCI</a>.<p>I haven't documented anything yet, but I got the arm working with ROS/MoveIt! for kinematics. The code is here: <a href="https://github.com/lukeinator42/sainsmart_arm_ros" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/lukeinator42/sainsmart_arm_ros</a>. It uses cheap servos though so I don't think the accuracy is near 0.25mm.<p>Here's a video that shows the arm in action: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yi_QydaN-34" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yi_QydaN-34</a><p>I'm currently also building a Roboteurs RBX1 Remix arm that uses stepper motors, but it's not complete yet.
Annin AR3
<a href="https://www.anninrobotics.com/" rel="nofollow">https://www.anninrobotics.com/</a><p>Original software for it is a bit hard to work with, improvements in <a href="https://github.com/ongdexter/ar3_core" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/ongdexter/ar3_core</a>
Have a look at <a href="https://shop.elephantrobotics.com/products/mycobot-pi-worlds-smallest-and-lightest-six-axis-collaborative-robot" rel="nofollow">https://shop.elephantrobotics.com/products/mycobot-pi-worlds...</a>. If you really need better repeatability, they have a more expensive Pro model.
There's plenty of Pi projects, here's one article <a href="https://robotbuildingkit.com/the-6-best-raspberry-pi-robot-arm-kits-of-2020/" rel="nofollow">https://robotbuildingkit.com/the-6-best-raspberry-pi-robot-a...</a>
Check out the 3d printable esp32 robot arm at <a href="https://www.20sffactory.com/" rel="nofollow">https://www.20sffactory.com/</a>
idk about anything specific or anything recommended here. but thought I'd share my thought: I've seen one on kickstarter about 2 years ago. not sure the name but it seemed very practical.