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motor selection for robotic arm

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samcheetah

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i want your advice on motors that would be good for a robotic arm. from what i have learnt, an RC servo is the best choice because it gives precise positioning. but RC servos are really expensive where i live and my robot is supposed to be a low cost robot so i have ruled them out.

the next choice is steppers. steppers can be operated in open loop without any need for feedback. steppers will move according to the number of pulses you give at the inputs. but there is a problem with steppers, they miss steps. but this problem can be solved by keeping the stepping rate slow. obviously this is a tradeoff. but its a fair deal 8)

then there are DC motors. but for them i would have to make a gear system or buy a DC motor with a built in gear-head. but in that case i would definitely need some sort of positional feedback (potentiometer?) and this will make matters worse.

now once williB suggested that i should get those steppers that have built in encoders. but i have seen them and they come in really wierd shapes and sizes. i really like the size of the steppers that are found in 5.25 inch floppy drives.

so what do you guyz say about this?
 
I think that no matter what type of motor you choose, you will need to build a feedback system for precise positioning of the motor (unless of course you choose a motor that already has this feature ie. servo motor).
As you have already said, if you used a DC motor, you would need to build a gearbox.
All things considered I would reccommend you use the servo motors. Although these may be more expensive, I think the few dollars more that you spend will become worth it when you relise the simplicity of installing a servo motor.
 
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