Category Archives: Physical Computing

For my final project of physical computing I decided to build a robotic arm, controlled by
six standard-sized servo motors. The idea was to control servos of the robotic arm with an
arduino code, using a serial communication with a bunch of different softwares such as
Processing or Max MSP.
As a basis for building a robotic construction I used an open-source  robotic arm from
Oomlout. The structure of the robot consists of 26 parts, which need to be laser-cut, either
from a 3 mm thick wooden panel or an acrylic glass sheets. Parts are then assembled, using
3mm screws and nuts.
materials required: 3mm thick sheets of acrylic glass or wood, screws and nuts (3mm),
electronics: arduino board, breadboard, jumping wires, servo extension cables,
6 standard servo motors (4.8-6V, 6 kg/cm, 40 grams), external power supply for servo motors
(25 W, 5V, 5 Amp)
software: Arduino+servo library, Max msp (for serial communication and control interface )
other software possibilities for serial communication and servo control: Processing, Open CV…

Robotic Arm Video link.