[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-9_dMJKh9E&feature=player_embedded%5D
Robotic claws are awesome, period. [Jeremy’s] Remotely controlled robotic claw, thats just a whole new level of cool – even if the intention is to just pick up blocks. The setup is simple enough, a Parallax Propeller controls the whole system by first polling a web server for changes in variables that the user has invoked. Those changes are then passed to relays that control the claw. To keep from fumbling in the dark, he’s even included a webcam. We hate to see that he’s used such expensive equipment to just control a toy, but maybe one day he’ll move to bigger and better things.
1+ for making do what it wasn’t intended
-1 for not making the claw :)
Another cool lashup of ‘to-hand’ technologies :) I like it, I wonder how much he could charge nasa for fixing the hubble with it?
Great project! Can’t wait to see how hot those motors get when 2000+ people are fighting over the controls at once. :)
He should really mount a camera on the tip of the claw as well, would make it easier to line up over the tubes
I saw the same product and thought about doing something similar but I assumed it used servos. I guess they’re just geared motors, otherwise he wouldn’t need relays.
I don’t like how the screen blinks everytime he clicks a link.
I’d say it’s time for some inverse kinematics. Would make controlling this beast a lot easier.
Damn you…
I bought and assembled this very same robotic arm, and (poorly) designed my own half-bridge circuit to control it from the printer port. Even made my own ASP page to control the printer port. I was just resting my eyes for a bit and you had to come roaring through in your blaze of glory.
I do take my hat off to you, of course. Very nice circuit. The controller page looks magnificent (Mine was a form with buttons) And my webcam is was very, very cheap.
Well done!
The interface looks very clean, but it looks like you only used one frame for the video/buttons (hence the flashing?). Two frames or an iframe should fix that.. or a flash interface. :)
This brings up a question of my own too.. say I have something with a camera that can be controlled over the internet like this. I want to allow multiple people to watch the video stream, and have a queue system to allow people to say have 30 seconds of control time each. Is there an open source project that sets up this infrastructure already? …. Or is this another winter project? :D
this guys voice made me think of that old switch linux flash…
http://dagobah.biz/flash/switchlinux3.swf
Very nice. He should add a joystick controls. Yah for windows 7
I’ve got exactly the same robotic arm, and it’s publicly controllable over at http://control.kennedytechnology.com – have fun.
Very nice. Hook it up near your door and you can pimp slap robber from anywhere in the world. LOL.