uArm Miniature Industrial Robot Arm

[Ziltoid]

Hi, i found this gadget https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ufactory/uarm-put-a-miniature-industrial-robot-arm-on-your on Kickstarter. I find the idea interesting but i dont have any use for it so i am undecided if i should back it. Does anyone of you has a novel idea what to do with it?

[8086]

Is it just an arduino controlled arm? Am I missing something special?

[ferrix]

In my opinion, without stepper motors it's basically just a toy.

If it *did* have steppers, I would be all over that.  Commercially available benchtop robots are extremely expensive.  I think there is room in the marketplace for a kit-type solution like this.  It would be a royal pain to tweak and "dial in", but could then provide very good utility and precision for its cost, much like 3D printers do today.  Not for the faint of heart, but if you are mechanically inclined then a big win.

[EEVblog]

I have one of these sitting in my lab in a box right now...

[Rerouter]

care to do a weight lift test then dave? if it can handle a Kg, I'd be much more interested in buying one

[sleemanj]

care to do a weight lift test then dave? if it can handle a Kg, I'd be much more interested in buying one

Looks like it barely lifts the coke can in the video.

It's a toy, not a tool.

Servo driven arms are pretty easy to come by...

http://s.etao.com/search?spm=a230r.1.17.38.zQoKbv&v=auction&q=%BB%FA%C6%F7%C8%CB%CA%D6%B1%DB&nidpromote=12738257391:3&stp=tb_search.srp.opsrh4.0.etaosrp&tb_lm_id=t_sousuo7&fromscombo=yes&cat=&sdata=price%3A88.00
http://item.taobao.com/item.htm?spm=a230r.1.14.73.zQoKbv&id=20317104377
http://item.taobao.com/item.htm?spm=a230r.1.14.84.zQoKbv&id=16123378355
http://item.taobao.com/item.htm?spm=a230r.1.14.95.zQoKbv&id=14404324796
http://item.taobao.com/item.htm?spm=a230r.1.14.270.zQoKbv&id=21467124808

[Harvs]

Commercially available benchtop robots are extremely expensive.

Yes they are, however it's relatively cheap to buy one that's got a dead controller.  If you up to interfacing one to a PC and using Mach3 or the like, you can get an industrial robot arm for <$2k.  You just need to keep an eye out on auctions and ebay to find one small enough, then be willing to arrange freight to get it to you.

[EEVblog]

The first one delivered (beta) is in my lab:


Will be in today's mailbag, but just scratch'n'sniff not operational yet.

[FrankBuss]

Looks good, but what is the accuracy and repeat accuracy? I think such a benchtop robot arm could be really useful, if built professionally with at least stepper motors, or like the expensive ones with linear motors and high resolution optical rotary encoders. Would be fun to build a motor controller for such a system.

[EEVblog]

Looks good, but what is the accuracy and repeat accuracy? I think such a benchtop robot arm could be really useful, if built professionally with at least stepper motors

I said as much in my mailbag.
But I have not used it yet, so don't know the repeatability. It's build well enough and seems strong enough for what it is.

[sleemanj]

I think such a benchtop robot arm could be really useful

How so?  I'm really struggling to think of an actual practical use for a bench top robot arm.  Maybe I'm just not imaginative enough?

[EEVblog]

How so?  I'm really struggling to think of an actual practical use for a bench top robot arm.  Maybe I'm just not imaginative enough?

You could automated connector or button endurance testing with it. 4-axis is overkill perhaps for those tasks though.

[FrankBuss]

How so?  I'm really struggling to think of an actual practical use for a bench top robot arm.  Maybe I'm just not imaginative enough?

Mount a hand drill and it is a CNC machine, mount a camera and the vacuum picker and it is a pick-and-place machine, mount a filament extruder and it is a 3D printer. If the mechanics is strong, accurate and stable enough, then the rest is just some software

[Towger]

Below  is my idea of a useful desk robot:

[MLXXXp]

You could automated connector or button endurance testing with it. 4-axis is overkill perhaps for those tasks though.

That could turn out to be costly. In many cases, you'd wear out the arm before the connector or button. 

[free_electron]

That doesn't look 'industrial' to me. I'd like to see it do any kind of 'industrial' work. It probably can't even lift a soda can ok so it can lift a sodacan... But can it stack a pallet or perform welds on a car ? Handing out business cards is not. 'Industrial' work. I doubt it is even precise enough to change cd's from a stack of blanks i to a recorder and out i to a labelprinter and out into a case. That could be considered 'desktop work'. Take freshly recorded cd out of burner and put in printer. Take blank cd from stack put in recorder. Take printed cd out of printer and put in case , close case and move to stack , grab new case and put in place. Repeat ...

-edit- just went to kickstarter .. "Laser cut acrylic or wood"

And the grammy award for the largest hyperbole usage of the word "arduino" and "plastic" and "industrial" this year goes to .... These guys.

You couldn't even stack pills with this thing. "Industrial"....

[Rerouter]

or in the case of Dave he could do a flying probe test of his ucurrents  (probably not worth it until he exceeds 1000 panels, but would be fun)

[EEVblog]

Using the word "Industrial" tells everyone straight away that it is not a model Sci-Fi robot. It makes it immediately evident what sort of robot it is. At the price of around $200 no-one, no reasonable person would conclude it is an actual industrial grade robot. Who would use such a thing on a desk?

Yes, it's pretty obvious that they are using the word "industrial" to try and explain that it's appearance and function is like that of an industrial robotic arm, not that it's industrial itself in any way.
And that's pretty obvious when you read further on when they say "inspired by" etc. It is what they claim, a "miniature desktop robotic arm", nothing more.

[CM800]

industrial grade robot. Who would use such a thing on a desk?

I would. infact i would love such a thing on my desk...

[heima]

Considering that RC hobby servo motors have feedback, and most "industrial" stepper motor robots, Armdroid, earlier Scorbot, and Musashi and Sony desktop do not, I do not see how merely adding stepper motors would make this robot more suitable for purpose? Greater torque? Greater resolution? More preferable interface?

[alexanderbrevig]

Did you spend two years making the robotic arm reply to this thread? :p

[Rerouter]

true industrial arms in my head would be exclusively servo as you can use smaller motors to the same effect (less copper sitting idle)