4 DOF Humanoid Robot Arm
Robotics Course
This is a modified Poppy humanoid arm to help people with tremors do tasks that require a steady hand. These tasks can be simple, such as drinking water, or they can be dangerous, such as using sharp objects. This arm helps get these tasks done in a safe and repeatable manner.
This project was part of our robotics course at the GUC. We were instructed to research service robots that help the elderly and then modify a Poppy humanoid arm to match the selected service robot application. This project was selected and done in collaboration with three teammates. Our application aimed to help the elderly as well as anyone with tremor do everyday tasks in a reliable way.
Design
The humanoid arm is based on the infamous poppy humanoid, developed by Matthieu Lapeyre, Pierre Rouanet, and Jonathan Grizou. The original design was modified by the addition of a robotic gripper to replace the hand. The gripper is designed in SOLIDWORKS, and there were several iterations before reaching a final design that was optimal for our needs.
Components
The arm is fairly simple in terms of components and assembly. The design was 3D printed and connected using high-torque servo motors. There are four high-torque servos in total and an additional servo for the gripper. All five servos are controlled using an Arduino Nano and everything is powered using a 5V, 10A power supply unit (PSU).
Simulation
We simulated the design on Matlab Simscape Multibody. We came up with some joints positions to do path planning and visualise it. The result came as follows:
