WaRFiElD

Hello, i'm thinking about building a robotic hand for a project in school. I was thinking of using step motors. But I need parts to build the fingers in aluminium or something like that. Anyone have some info that could be useful?

Thank you

nettron1000

Perhaps your question would be better served in the robotics forum of this board, but anyway.

Robotic "hands" are more commonly refered to as grippers or manipulators. But if you mean to build a robotic hand that is to mimic a real human hand, you would have quite a complex mechanical design problem on your hands ( excuse the pun). It would also require alot of motors, not to mention the control system that would be required.

It would be to your advantage in time, complexity and cost to just design and build a robotic gripper. You can use one motor to open and close the gripper.
Heres a CAD drawing of one such gripper i designed and built awhile ago that may give you some ideas:

http://www.geocities.com/nettron1000/RoboGrip2.html


...and here are some pics of the nearly finished gripper:


http://www.geocities.com/nettron1000/RoboArm4.html


Stepper motors are not usually used in robotic grippers because of their low torque, it would be better to use a servo. Servo motors are the most commonly used motors for robotics because of thier ease of use and high torque.

__________________
Two roads diverged into a woods...i took the one less travelled by. R. Frost.

leprien

get a small pump use hydrolics small hydrolics arn't to exspensive push and pull a solid rod to creat your move ment if the duty you ar doing is light use compresed air.
a simple design i think would be make a spider shaped gripper hope my ideas help

matasoft

Where can anyone buy metal in the shape he wants to build the metal structure? :?:

Klaus

Buying metal for a robotics project; The simplest would be to buy a ready made kit if one can be found.
Else, for the small quantities involved it would pay to visit a metal fabricator (aluminium) and ask if they have some suitable offcuts which sometimes can be had for free. Some metal retailers cut pieces to length from stock sizes, these also often have an offcut box with small pieces in it for sale.
Of course, having gotten the raw metal, one needs the tools and skill to fabricate the bits for the project from them. That may be a real stumbling block for the younger persons whose dad does not have a nice workshop out in the back shed. In this case it may be less frustrating to pick a simpler electronic project, one which does not involve mechanical parts to any extend.
Robotics is a complex marriage of mechanical, electro mechanic, electronic and computing skills 8)
Klaus