High school graduate Sam Baumgarten and senior Graham Hughes have used 3D printing to build an Arduino-powered robotic gripper. A glove fitted with flex sensors is used to control the device, which uses three large servos to control its 3D printed fingers.
You can do some pretty great things with a 3D printer, an Arduino, and a handful of other components. Just ask Baumgarten and Hughes, whose incredible robotic gripper demonstrates a level of skill and ambition well beyond the students’ years. The device consists of a three-fingered gripper unit at the end of a metal handle, which has a box of electronic components at its base. A separate flex sensor-equipped glove is used to operate the gripper, with the user able to perform natural squeezing motions which are replicated in real time by the robotic device.
Robotic grippers can have many uses, industrial and otherwise, but roboticists are still some way from achieving the perfect design. It is therefore refreshing to see talented youngsters really “getting to grips” with advanced projects like this one. Baumgarten recently posted a video demonstrating how he and Hughes built the robotic device, and some of the revelations are pretty interesting. Just don’t ask why there are two Arduinos.
The robotic gripper consists of three hobby servos and mechanical, 3D printed fingers with force sensors at their tips. The glove, worn by the user to control the gripper, uses flexible sensors whose resistance changes as the wearer flexes their fingers. The signal from these resistors is processed by an Arduino and sent to the gripper module via an Xbee module.
Adafruit publishes a wide range of writing and video content, including interviews and reporting on the maker market and the wider technology world. Our standards page is intended as a guide to best practices that Adafruit uses, as well as an outline of the ethical standards Adafruit aspires to. While Adafruit is not an independent journalistic institution, Adafruit strives to be a fair, informative, and positive voice within the community – check it out here: adafruit.com/editorialstandards
Stop breadboarding and soldering – start making immediately! Adafruit’s Circuit Playground is jam-packed with LEDs, sensors, buttons, alligator clip pads and more. Build projects with Circuit Playground in a few minutes with the drag-and-drop MakeCode programming site, learn computer science using the CS Discoveries class on code.org, jump into CircuitPython to learn Python and hardware together, TinyGO, or even use the Arduino IDE. Circuit Playground Express is the newest and best Circuit Playground board, with support for CircuitPython, MakeCode, and Arduino. It has a powerful processor, 10 NeoPixels, mini speaker, InfraRed receive and transmit, two buttons, a switch, 14 alligator clip pads, and lots of sensors: capacitive touch, IR proximity, temperature, light, motion and sound. A whole wide world of electronics and coding is waiting for you, and it fits in the palm of your hand.
Have an amazing project to share? The Electronics Show and Tell is every Wednesday at 7:30pm ET! To join, head over to YouTube and check out the show’s live chat and our Discord!
Python for Microcontrollers – Adafruit Daily — Select Python on Microcontrollers Newsletter: PyCon AU 2024 Talks, New Raspberry Pi Gear Available and More! #CircuitPython #Python #micropython @ThePSF @Raspberry_Pi
EYE on NPI – Adafruit Daily — EYE on NPI Maxim’s Himalaya uSLIC Step-Down Power Module #EyeOnNPI @maximintegrated @digikey
