Robotic Arms

[elihs]

I'm currently in a program at my school called "Senior Year Project," in which we get out of classes during the fourth quarter of our senior year in order to work on a special research project. Since I've been on my city's FRC team (2877 - the LigerBots) for four years and we have never been able to create a really successful robotic arm, I decided I wanted to create a robotic arm.

I'm specifically designing my arm so that it would have been able to be used in the game two years ago - Logomotion. So, if any of you have any suggestions for cool designs, or have CAD models that you think might be useful to me, I would greatly appreciate them! Any models or designs for robotic arms would be useful - not just those designed for Logomotion.

I have a few ideas milling around my head for the design. For example, I want to put the arm on a Lazy Susan, to have one joint controlled by a piston, one by a motor, and then have the last part of the arm be telescoping. But I'm open to new ideas or suggestions.

Thanks!