Robot Arm Wrists are too heavy - until now!

Making a lightweight wrist mechanism for my 3d printed 6DOF (6 Degrees of Freedom) Robot arm using Bowden Tubes and Fishing Line

These are the supplies i used:

[RobiBue]

Back in the mid 80s I worked in robotics, and there were (and still are) many different approaches for different applications.
The approach you took here is specifically for lightweight loads, as strings, cables and such tend to stretch with higher loads as well as over time, thus affecting the precision.
Robotic arms are designed for specific loads, no matter how many axis (degrees of freedom) they have.
With your system, you have to pay very much attention to your first and fourth axis to not over-rotate them. Otherwise some of your strings might stretch or even snap, or create friction inside the tubes that have been wound around the arm, causing it to fail.
Sorry if I come across too critical. I only mean to point out some points I personally have had experience with, and have had my own fair share of mishaps 🤫

[DeSinc]

This is pretty cool. Not unlike how our own wrists work when you think about it, right? Our tendons are controlled by muscles that are actually mostly much lower down in our forearms, away from the actual fulcrum point up on the wrist that they're affecting. Kinda different but similar in a way. You get what I mean. Maybe that's why we evolved like that, more efficient to move less mass around at the end of the arm while maintaining control over the joint at the far end.

[mrteemug]

Wow, so cool seeing you progress so far with the 3D printed robot arm. Noticed the proud smile at the end :D Makes me want to start my own project.

[elliotmarks]

I love where this project is going. If you make the 3D files open for anyone to download, I can totally see someone making an open-source 3D control GUI for the whole thing.

This definitely has potential as a cheap, DIY camera robot!

[frozenfocuses]

I really have to say, Im blown away by this incredible little arm. Im currently working on a project in school and this helped me out so much with a LOT of problems. Thank you for that great video!!!

[alirezaghorbanzadeh]

I love how robotic arms are becoming more in tune with real anatomy of human arm and its mechanisms. Great work!

[dansve]

Love your smile at 6.30 when you watch everything work as planned! Its a great feeling 😄 well done and explained

[FSF]

I've always been really nervous about robotics and have been slowly learning about it as I get more comfortable with printing and programming and seeing things like this makes it all seem so much more approachable, there's still room to innovate and make things easier and get over some of the hurdles like weight and motor strength. I've seen hydraulic robotics where they used motors to just press and depress plungers on syringes attached to tubes and something about that just immediately made the whole of the technology seem so much more approachable and seeing you attaching the lines to motors on your final design and have them fishing up through the rest of the robot just... It just makes it make so much more sense, it feels so much more applicable, so much more reasonable. It's just pulleys, tubes and motors at the end of it, much less daunting.

[curious_ben]

I love following your progress with the arm. I was particularly intrigued with the ability to do serial communication with Python. As a beginner Arduino enthusiast and as someone who feels more at home with Python, I would love to see more of that. Great video!

[pjelbro]

The great thing with actually doing stuff like this is once you have completed the design your mind is already designing the Mk 2 because you can actually see where it can be improved. Well done for doing this and posting the video.

[timmyg]

The big smile on your face at the end of the video really shows how much effort you put into this

[darkshadowsx]

the way you talk and explain what you're doing is marvelous. its way better than the youtubers who sound like they consumed 6 pots of extra strength coffee just before filming.

[Kalvinjj]

Pretty genius in it's simplicity to use bowden tubes as the line guide.
Industrial robots often use a sort-of similar setup too to remove mass from the wrist but with timing belts instead.

[austendavey]

I had an idea for draw string robotics, absolutely thrilled to see it in action, I feel as though with some clever thinking and 3d modeling the Bowden tubes could almost completely run through the core of the arm (kind of tendon like)

[Alex-xlxe]

What a calming voice, straight to the point, smart and enough british sarcasm to be really funny. Got me subbed.

[qtxsystems]

How satisfying it is to see an abstraction become a reality. Bravo.

[JoshuaJesterRichards]

I've had this same idea for a long while, but instead of cord it was sprockets and chains (or belts and pulleys for simpler/test versions) with rolling joints that allow the arm to fold up however I need it to. I just haven't had the education and materials to do it yet

[HornbyCrazy]

Progress looks amazing! Movement is incredibly smooth too

[AshwathKarthikeyanRA]

Don't mind me, just adding some timestamps for myself.

0:50 - pulley intro
3:26 - stepper drive panel
3:59 - working
4:06 - rig shot
6:02 - GUI

[Equilibrier]

What a warm and nice voice and words you have sir, it's very relaxing to hear you explaining. Congrats !