Custom Robotic Arm
EECS 373: Intro to Embedded Systems | August 2020 - December 2020

I developed a robotic arm with fully custom transmissions and electronics to learn more about designing highly integrated systems

Core functionality of every component was achieved but was not fully integrated due to limits imposed by the pandemic

​​Overview of project: Final Presentation Slides

Cycloidal transmission movement: No Output, With Output

End effector movement: End Effector

Full demo using motor driver and custom encoder: Full Demo

I was the only member of this project and organized, designed, fabricated, tested, and integrated each subassembly.

Electronics:

• Custom brushless motor driver with either hall effect or external absolute encoder input, 20 amp continuous current capability
• Transmission embedded magnetic-optical hybrid encoder system, resulted in 17 bits of absolute position sensing for $12
• Various microcontroller and servo driving boards

Mechanical:

•  Two-stage transmissions that drive each joint of the robotic arm, consists of various machined and 3D printed components
  • First stage is a custom cycloidal drive to maximize torque density of the joint
  • Second stage is a custom planetary drive due to time constraints
• 4-bar parallel linkage servo driven gripper

Software:

• Low-level software for brushless motor commutation and PID control (position and velocity)
• STM32 ARM microprocessors are used on each motor driver/control board​

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