PhantomX Pincher, Move and Stack Objects.

The robots are becomming a bigger and bigger part of our daily life. They are used everywhere to automate things and make life more easy for everyone.

The Instructable will show how to setup and program the PhantomX Pincher to move bricks around and then stack them. The robot is going to pick up 4 wooden bricks placed at the same location. This could be done by a conveyor or just hand placing them. It will then place them in a pattern at different locations and then stack them on top of each other.

For this, a robot arm will be needed, along with a push button to start the process and 4 wooden bricks..

Motivation:

The future is full of robots and automation. There for this will help us get a basic understanding on how this works, and how to program them. Robots can be more efficient and faster than humans can, so it will be a very important thing to learn and understand.

1: PhantomX Pincher Robot Arm Kit Mark II.

Assembly guide for the PhantomX Pincher: http://learn.trossenrobotics.com/interbotix/robot-...

2: 2x Push button - Relax servos (input).

3: 4 Wooden bricks.

Software:

1: Arduino IDE

Arduino getting started guide: http://learn.trossenrobotics.com/arbotix/7-arbotix...

2: DynaManager

DYNAMIXEL ID Guide: http://learn.trossenrobotics.com/index.php/getting...

The start button is connected to the digital input 0 on the Arduino Board and
the reset button is connected to the digital input 1 on the Arduino Board.

The Arduino Board got a power supply, and is connected to the 5 motors on the robotic arm, which are in a serial connection.

The program is written in Arduino IDE version 1.0.6.

The program consists of two main parts: the setup and the loop.
In the first part the speed of the motors are set along with the starting position of the robotic arm.

The second part is where the robot start doing the tasks. The first thing here is a while loop that is allways true, untill the start button is pressed. The program then moves on, doing the tasks. It mainly consists of setting different positions for the motors along with delays so the arm got time to move. When its done it will encounter another while loop that holds it untill the reset button is pressed. The robot will then go back to the starting position, and is ready for another go.

The group has designed a programmed a solution that fulfills the project formulation. The PhantomX Pincher was programmed to symbolise real life automation machinery.

For the solution, the robotic arm is automated using a Arduino Board. The robot pick up bricks, and move them down the chain of bricks. When it runs out of bricks (after 4 has been placed) it will grab the first and move it to the other end of the chain. When it reaches the end of the chain, the robot will begin to stack the bricks on top of each other. By automating this kind of a machine, the real-life, the customer will be saving money and time. Other than that it will also provides a safe and efficient work space.