[Pythagoras], A Delta Robot For Drawing

January 13, 2012 by Jeremy Cook 11 Comments

[Pythagoras] is a delta robot built originally using RC servos. Humbly, [Aaron] “concedes” that the first version of his delta robot using hobby servos was easy to build. As anyone who has built any kind of robot knows though, there is definitely a lot of work involved in even the simplest robot. Coordinating three axes and programming it to draw a picture is a really great accomplishment.

The second version, however is currently in development and uses stepper motors instead of servos. These upgraded motors should make the robot faster, more controllable, and more accurate. This version is at least somewhat working as evidenced by the time-lapse video after the break.

Although the title page listed above is a little sparse on build details, if you dig deeper into the page, there are actually 15 articles about the ‘bot, so be sure to poke around. Continue reading “[Pythagoras], A Delta Robot For Drawing” →

Delta Robot 3D Printer

September 4, 2011 by Brian Benchoff 22 Comments

Sometimes, not all our builds work out the way we hoped. That’s what happened to [Rob] and his attempt at a Delta robot that does stereo lithography. A Delta robot is capable of very fast and precise movements, so [Rob] slapped a laser module on the end of the arms. After putting some UV curing resin in front of the laser, he was left with a blob of goo and we’re trying to figure out why.

[Rob] thinks the admittedly terrible print quality was due to diffraction and the reflective build plate. If this were the case, we’d agree with the assessment that adding some dye to the resin would help. Some commentors on [Rob]’s blog have suggested that he’s running the laser too slowly. It’s a shame [Rob] scrapped his build and turned it into a plain-jane X & Y axis build. Delta robots can be really damn fast, and adding a printer to one might mean prints that take minutes instead of hours. There are a few people working to get a Delta RepRap off the ground, but this project still has another prototype or two before that happens. Check out [Rob]’s attempt at Delta robot stereolithography after the break.

Thanks to [techartisan] for sending this one in.

Continue reading “Delta Robot 3D Printer” →

Kinect-controlled Delta Robot Has A Magnetic Personality

August 23, 2011 by Mike Nathan 10 Comments

kinect_controlled_delta_robot

[Malte] is a loyal Hackaday reader and neurobiology PhD candidate with a keen interest in hobby robotics – definitely our kind of guy! He wrote in to share a project he has been working on in his spare time, a Kinect-controlled delta robot (Google translation).

Deltares, as it is called, is pretty straightforward as far as delta robots are concerned. It uses three servos to actuate the arms, which are controlled by an AVR micro running BASCOM. The AVR gets its coordinate data from his computer via a serial connection after it has been captured by the Kinect. [Malte] opted to use Microsoft’s official SDK for the project, processing the Kinect skeletal data using a small C# application he wrote.

The end result is pretty neat as you can see in the pair of videos below. In the first video, [Malte] uses Deltares as a plotter, drawing a crude face on a piece of paper with a marker. In the second, he commands Deltares with his right hand, using his left to activate the magnetic solenoid to pick up the steel spheres.

It looks pretty cool to us, and we’d love to see what sorts of things he puts together if he ever ends up making robotics his career rather than a hobby.

Continue reading “Kinect-controlled Delta Robot Has A Magnetic Personality” →

ArduDelta Would Make A Great Pick And Place Machine

July 7, 2011 by Brian Benchoff 23 Comments

[Bogdan] sent in a great build of a delta robot he originally posted on the Arduino forum, but he didn’t receive much feedback there. We think a build like this deserves a lot more credit.

After working for 7 months on his robot, [Bogdan] has a pretty stable (and very classy) platform made out of wood. The platform and arms in delta robots are usually extremely light to reduce the inertia of the tool so [Bodan] crafted these out of carbon fiber tubes and plexiglas. Everything is controlled by an Arduino Mega2560 encased in a plexiglas enclosure with a 20×4 LCD, status LEDs, and an infrared receiver.

Continue reading “ArduDelta Would Make A Great Pick And Place Machine” →

Arduino Powered Delta Robot

September 7, 2009 by Caleb Kraft 10 Comments

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HEHdD7pd64I]

We spotted this video of a delta robot today that seems to be powered by an Arduino. We were wondering when we would see this, happen. The source code is available on the project page. We really like the mouse control, its just fun to watch. You may recall that we recently covered some slightly more complex delta robots.

[via Makezine]