| − | |desc=<div><div><div>0%</div><div>0%</div></div><h3>Thor</h3><br/><br/><div><div><div><h3>Become a Hackaday.io member</h3><p>Not a member? You should</p></div><div><div>Your Password</div><br/><div>Sign up</div></div></div><br/><br/><div>or use these profiles to log in</div></div></div><br/><div>Similar projects worth following</div><br/><br/><div><div><div>117.3k</div><br/><br/><h4>Team (3)</h4><br/><br/><h4>Related lists</h4><div><p>Hackaday Prize Entries using Atmel parts</p></div><div><p>Proj</p></div><div><p>111</p></div><div><p>Canh tay robot</p></div><h4>This project is submitted for</h4><br/><br/><p>This project was created on 08/03/2016 and last updated 9 months ago.</p></div><div><div>Thor is an Open Source and printable robotic arm with six degrees of freedom.<br/><br/>Its configuration (yaw-roll-roll-yaw-roll-yaw) is the same one that is used on most<br/><br/>manipulator robots that currently exist in the market.<br/><br/>In its upright position, Thor is about 625mm and it can lift objects up to 750 grams.<br/><br/>The project started a year ago as my Final Degree Project called "Design and startup of an<br/><br/>Open Source and printable 6DOF robotic arm" but a lot of things have changed since the<br/><br/>presentation day.<br/><br/>The main purpose of this project was to create a robotic arm that could be used in<br/><br/>universities and schools to teach robotics instead of using simulation software or low<br/><br/>accurate models. Having this in mind, the final prototype had to be affordable and, of course,<br/><br/>Open Source.</div><br/><div><p>If you are interested in this project, please consider joining .</p><br/><p>To develop this project, I have been involved in several areas of expertise:</p><h4>Hardware choice</h4><p>In order to have a nice accuracy on the moves without raising the price too much, I chose stepper motors for the movement transmission. I had to choose stepper motors with mechanical reduction for the second and third articulation in order to manage the torque generated in these articulations. For the two last DOF I chose smaller steppers with the purpose of reducing their weight.</p><p>For the electronics I chose an Arduino Mega as main controlling board. And I designed a "shield" to make possible the control of 7 steppers. I chose pololu A4988 as stepper drivers.</p><p>For the transmission of the third, fifth and sixth articulation I have used GT2 Pulleys and GT2 Belts.</p><p>Finally, I chose optoisolators and a micro-endstop in order to establish a home position for the first five articulations. Using optoisolators instead of mechanical stop allows it to rotate more than 360 degrees without colliding with the sensor.</p><p>As you may have realized, all of the hardware I have chosen is commonly used on DIY 3D printers.</p><h4>3D Design</h4><p>I used FreeCAD software in order to design the pieces of the robotic arm. There are 37 different printable pieces in Thor. For every piece there have been a lot of iterations behind the final one.</p><p>Some design solutions are inspired by commercial robots, others are the result of hours of work and others are just serendipitous ideas.</p><p>The final design had to be compact and safe. I wanted to hide every motor and every single wire to make it more aesthetic. Also, I designed covers and protections to reduce the risk of entrapment while the user is manipulating the robotic arm.</p><p>None of the 6 DOF is a end-effector. There are a lot of commercial and DIY grippers/vacuum/hooks around the web and for each use something different is needed. Instead of integrating a gripper into the design I decided to make an adaptable design making an interface between the end-effector and the robotic arm. This way you have 3 options to include a tool on Thor:</p><p>1. You can modify the interface, placing the mounting holes wherever you need them.</p><p>2. You can modify the tool, matching its mounting holes with the interface ones.</p><p>3. You can design an intermediate piece that fit with the interface on one of its sides and with the tool on the other side.</p><br/><p>I like the whole robot, but I'm especially proud of these 3 solutions:</p><p><strong>- Semi differential (5&6 DOF)</strong></p><p>This kind of transmission allows it to do two types of movements using two small gears that act over a big one. When the small gears rotate in the same direction, the big gear bloks and rotates around the small gears' axis. When the small gears rotate in opposite directions, the big gear rotates around its own axis.</p><p>This way, actuating over the two small gears allowed me to place the steppers as lower as I could, transmitting the movement with GT2 belts and reducing the torque generated by the motor's weight.</p><br/><p><strong>- Support point of 2nd DOF shaft</strong></p><p>While I was designing the second and third articulations I was worried about the available space. The motors tookup a lot of space and there wasn't a single small area to establish the second support point for the second articulation axis. The solution was one of the serendipitous ideas I have mentioned early. Why not use the shaft of the stepper of the third articulation as the support point for the second articulation axis? And voila It worked well.</p><br/><p><strong>- DIY Bearing</strong></p><p>The design of the 4th articulation had an issue, I didn't find a commercial bearing adjusted to my needs. After days of searching, I decided to make my own. Inspired by a solution that some users used for the , I designed the bearing using 6mm airsoft balls as bearing balls. The result was precise, almost without backlash (after some printing tolerance tests) and very cheap.</p><br/><h4>Electronic Design</h4><p>Before this project, I had never designed a PCB but I had used</p></div><br/><table><tr><td><br/><div>1x</div><p>sla - 864.73 kB - 08/03/2016 at 14:50</p></td> </tr><tr><td><br/><div>1x</div><p>sla - 991.29 kB - 08/03/2016 at 14:50</p></td> </tr><tr><td><br/><div>4x</div><p>sla - 29.57 kB - 08/03/2016 at 14:50</p></td> </tr><tr><td><br/><div>1x</div><p>sla - 745.20 kB - 08/03/2016 at 14:50</p></td> </tr><tr><td><br/><div>1x</div><p>sla - 133.68 kB - 08/03/2016 at 14:50</p></td> </tr></table><br/><ul><li>1 × Barrel Jack Connector Control PCB</li><li>112 × Female Pins Control PCB</li><li>4 × Cooper Plate 36x16mm Sensor PCBs</li><li>1 × Bus Wire 2x36 Control PCB</li><li>1 × 40mm Fan Control PCB</li></ul><br/><br/><ul><li>• 02/18/2018 at 15:26 •<br/><div><p>Hello everyone</p><p>It has been more than a year since I released the Thor project. From the beginning, the project was very well received. It received tons of views, likes, comments, forks<br/>And more important than the "fame", the feedback started to arrive. Many people liked the robot, but not the way to control it. Not everyone knows how the GCodes work and, even if you know it, sometimes you don't want to type a GCode to move a robotic arm.</p><p>So, some users started developing or adapting GUIs for Thor (I can't really express all my gratitude to they). But at this point, I don't really know the state of that GUIs.</p><p>That's why I decided to make my own program to control Thor. A GUI designed using Qt and programmed in Python. It's my first time programming something that doesn't use the terminal for the user interaction so please be gentle with me hahaha.</p><p>This GUI is called Asgard and is OpenSource too. You can find the source files at the . Do not hesitate if you want to collaborate in the development, help is always welcome</p><br/><p>These would be the key features of Asgard GUI: (features marked with a ✔ are already implemented)</p><br/><ul><li>User-friendly Graphical Interface ✔</li></ul><p>Some things that I have though about but not in the short-term:</p><ul><li>3D display</li><li>3D IK Controller/Sequence Programmer</li></ul><p>Finally, this is the current look of the graphical part of Asgard:</p><br/><p>I'll be posting logs as the development reach the different versions. But if you want to be more in touch with Asgard and Thor notices and developments, I would recommend you to join us at </p><br/><p>If you have some suggestions/tips/comments please post them I will be happy to know what do you think about this</p><br/><p>I'll keep you updated<br/>Ángel L.M.</p></div></li><br/><li>• 08/17/2017 at 09:31 •<br/><div><p>Hi there</p><p>It’s been a long time since the last time I wrote a log I’m back</p><p>Thor’s community is growing fast There are (at least) 4 Thors assembled & operational around the world and another 17 being built There are schools and universities relying on Thor for teach robotics… Great yaaay</p><p>The more people are interested in this project, the more feedback I get. Recently I have received several questions about the sensors I’m using to establish the home position of Thor (opto-couplers, opto-transistors, opto-switches… whatever). To be honest, until now it was pretty tricky… I made my own sensors using a DIY CNC for the PCBs and soldering the components by myself. As this project has attracted different kinds of people, I thought that it could be nice to simplify this issue: making Thor compatible with commercial sensors instead of creating the custom ones. Let’s try to not reinventing the wheel</p><p>The first thing was to find a cheap commercial sensor which could fit inside Thor. To make things easier, I was looking for a single model which could fit in the 4 articulations. For the first three ones was an easy task, but the sensor located in the Art3body piece for the 4th Articulation had to be pretty small to not collide with the Art4TransmissionColumn piece.</p><p>Finally I found which met all my needs. I think that it won’t be hard to find that kind of sensors in other online-shops, but I tend to use Aliexpress because of its large catalogue.</p><p>So, without further ado, these are the changes I made in the design (on the left side the old design and on the right side the new design):</p><p>The sensor for the 1st Articulation is now fixed to the BaseBot piece.</p><br/><p>The sensor for the 2nd and 3rd Articulations are placed in a similar position as the custom ones, I modified the Art2BodyB piece adding fixing point for them. Also, the Art23Optodisk has been redesigned to work properly with the new distances.</p><br/><p>The Art3Body piece has been redesigned to fix the sensor of the 4th Articulation. The board of this sensor has to be cut to avoid the collision with the Art4TransmissionColumn piece. Do not worry about that cut, there are no circuits in that zone of the PCB, so can be cut gently.</p><br/><p>I have only tested it using the 3D models. The sensors fit, but presumably the connector of each sensor will have to be replaced with other flatter.</p><p>FYI: the last commit where you can find the older files (the ones for the custom sensors) is this one:</p><p>Do you like it?</p><p>Ángel L.M.</p></div></li><br/><li>• 08/08/2017 at 19:28 •<br/><div><p>It's the crossover episode you've been dreaming about</p><br/><br/><p>THOR robot arm is now simulated in . Forward and Inverse kinematics can be manipulated visually in 3D. I feel confident it won't be long before RO is talking to the firmware and any THOR owner can drive their arm from the software. One step closer to fully open source process automation</p><p>Special thanks to @angelILM for producing the STL files and dimensions on request.</p></div></li><br/><br/><li>• 04/22/2017 at 14:13 •<br/><div><p>I just made a Wiring Diagram for the Control PCB v1.0 board.</p><p>You will find the full resolution image & source files at the .</p><p>I want to remind that there is a with 90 members in this right moment where you can ask, share and read about this project Join us :)</p><p>Check soon my fork of the grbl repo to get the lastest firmware for the ControlPCB board.</p><p>Best regards,<br/>Ángel LM</p></div></li><br/><br/><li>• 01/15/2017 at 16:30 •<br/><div><p>Hi</p><p>Since a few weeks I'm receiving a lot of questions/feedback/information from many different directions (email, Twitter, Hackaday, Thingiverse, GitHub, Wevolver, etc.).<br/>One thing is clear, this project has become known, at least more known than I expected at the beginning, and I cannot do other than thank you Thank you for your likes, your comments, your feedback, for sharing the project, contributing to it and for building a Thor. You rock</p><p>Also, from the very beginning I wanted everyone to became part of this project and share all the information. I think that the current platforms I'm using are not the ideal ones to develop a community project. Using a lot of platforms is convenient for spreading the word, but not for focus the information</p><p>That's why I decided to make the . I have been in other communities of Google Groups and it works so well. Everyone can access, everyone can ask/answer/show, it's easy and clear and it's free. In this way I want to share all the info I have with you all. And you will be able to help, give/get feedback and share your ideas, progress and modifications with other community members.</p><p>From now I'll group all info there and I'll be answering the questions there. I'll be posting there my progress and changes too (I will still doing that here too).</p><p>See you </p><p>EDIT: I forgot to say that I also did a in order to answer them :)</p></div></li><br/><br/><li>• 12/19/2016 at 16:05 •<br/><div><p>Hi</p><p>Time ago splitting them and making them printable in 180*180mm bed area printers.</p><p>He made an awesome work, and I wanted that modifications to be in the main repo, so I added it Also, I migrated the design to FreeCAD in order to have the source files too ;)</p><br/><p>EDIT 21/12/16: I have migrated another 2 modifications to FreeCAD :)</p><br/><p>On the left, my remix of Art4Body modification made by Danny. Designed for low height printers, thank you again Danny :)</p><p>On the right, the for 190*190mm print area. This will allow more users to print Thor. Thank you too ;)</p><p>Are you having issues with other pieces?</p><p>Season's greetings for all</p></div></li><br/><br/><li>• 12/16/2016 at 14:33 •<br/><div><p>Yay I received them 3 days ago Exciting</p><br/><p>I ordered them to PCBWay and my experience was great They are fast, kind and very cheap :D And the quality of the PCBs is incredible, very professional. I'll work with them again for sure</p><p>As you see I have designed it for THT and SMD (1206 package) components. I never used SMD before, but there's a first time for everything haha.</p><br/><br/><p>Now, it's time to wait for the arrival of the components I think that it will take about a month or two I don't know if I'll be that patient</p><p>Hope you like it :)</p></div></li><br/><br/><li>• 12/07/2016 at 21:43 •<br/><div><ul><p>Woah, more than 300 followers Hello everyone</p><p>As I said weeks ago, I needed a new electronic board to control Thor The one I was using had many mistakes (a man may learn wit every day ) and I got tired of botching it. The initial idea was design a DIY PCB board, but due to its limitations and how cheap is to manufacture it in China I decided to design a better control board.</p><p>Of course using OpenSource software, KiCad again.</p><p>First of all, some pictures:</p><p>It took me a few hours to understand the values that I had to set (track width, drills diameters, etc.) in order to send it to the manufacturer but it won't happen the next time >:D</p><p>Anyway, the new features:</p></ul><li>First and the most necessary: Reverse current protection circuit. No more burned drivers because of mistaken power input polarity It will save my wallet</li><li>This board allows to control up to 8 stepper drivers (instead of 7 of the previous version).</li><li>Smaller size: Less than 100mm*70mm.</li><li>Easier assembly: the Silkscreen is a nice helper</li><li>Added 3 confirmation LEDs (Power Input, PCB Power, Arduino Power).</li><li>Added more 12V aux outputs for the fans.</li><li>Added a switch to power off the steppers and keep the fans working.</li><li>The connections between the drivers and the male pins that connect with the Arduino Mega are now well driven. This has been possible thanks to the 2 layers board, and it will allows to simply connect a ribbon cable with a 2x18 connector without "hacking it"</li><p>And I think that's all I'll send it to the manufacturer as soon as I finish another PCB I'm designing.</p><p>Of course, I shared it on the . If you are reading this close to the publish date, you will find the new PCB files in the ControlPCBUpdate branch. Feel free to take a look and share your opinions</p><br/><p>Hope you like it</p><p>Best regards,<br/>Ángel LM</p></div></li><br/><br/><li>• 11/21/2016 at 16:11 •<br/><div><p>This weekend I was at Bilbao Maker Faire showing Thor. The event was great and I met a lot of interesting people.</p><p>I met Antonio, the creator of , who was located next to me at the faire, so we managed to interact our robotic arms with each other And here is the result (Maybe the first marriage proposal between robotic arms?)</p><p>As you can see in the video, Thor is moving faster than weeks ago. I increased the speed of the slowest articulations about 50%. Soon i'll test the maximum speeds that Thor can support.</p><p>Another great new is that I have been using Thor for 8h non-stop working and it didn't broke or melt neither Yay</p><p>Next things I'll be working on: Test the maximum speeds, making a conveyor belt that will interact with Thor, design a new electronic board and add a new degree of freedom (hehe >:D).<br/><br/>Finally, I just saw Just go to his project page and see it with your own eyes</p><p>Best regards</p></div></li><br/><li>• 11/07/2016 at 21:12 •<br/><div><p>Hi everyone</p><p>First of all, thank you for your 100 likes 276 followers & over of 15k views. You rock</p><p>1. I measured the temperature of steppers in action and it went over 70ºC. PLA starts deforming at 60ºC So I had a real problem there. Not only the gears were deforming, also the Art1Body part were deforming and causing the malfunction.</p><p>2. I appreciated that my design didn't had refrigeration holes, so the heat produced by the steppers only could be dissipated through the plastic (bad idea because it was causing the deformation). After facepalming myself I redesigned the parts that contain steppers and introducing 40mm fans into the design. In this way, the motors would have forced cooling.</p><p>3. I tested it. And it worked well, now the steppers don't reach 40ºC and it goes well Just in case I printed the gears using ABS to prevent the deformation. The test was performed at a 10h non-stop maker faire called OSHWDEM at A Coruña (Spain).</p><p>So, check the new design at GitHub repo before print it And if you have printed it already don't worry. Take the dremel, do some holes and glue the fans (I did this hahaha)</p><p>Aaaand there you have a video of Thor doing a manipulation job. I think that the next step is increase its speed, don't you?</p></div></li></ul><br/><br/><ul><li><div><div>1</div><div><div>Step 1</div><div><p>Printing Profile: I recommend to slow down the outer shell speed at least to 50% of its normal printing speed in order to get accurate results on holes, gears, etc. For some pieces supports are needed.</p></div></div></div></li><br/><li><div><div>2</div><div><div>Step 2</div><div><p><strong>Prepare materials</strong></p><p>If you want to include the home sensors, you will need to make the PCBs and weld the components.</p><p>It's also recommended to weld a wire extension to the steppers wires, specially for the last three ones.</p></div></div></div></li><br/><li><div><div>3</div><div><div>Step 3</div><div><p><strong>Make the electronics</strong></p><p>Make the Control PCB and weld the components</p></div></div></div></li></ul><br/><br/><h4>Enjoy this project?</h4>Share<br/><h4>Discussions</h4><br/><br/><div><div>wrote<p>Are you sure? </p></div><br/><div>wrote<p>Are you sure? </p></div><br/><div>wrote<p>Are you sure? </p></div><br/><div>wrote<p>Are you sure? </p></div><br/><div>wrote<p>Are you sure? </p></div><br/><div>wrote<p>Are you sure? </p></div><br/><div>wrote<p>Are you sure? </p></div><br/><div>wrote<p>Are you sure? </p></div><br/><div>wrote<p>Are you sure? </p></div><br/><div>wrote<p>Are you sure? </p></div><br/><div>wrote<p>Are you sure? </p></div><br/><div>wrote<p>Are you sure? </p></div><br/><div>wrote<p>Are you sure? </p></div><br/><div>wrote<p>Are you sure? </p></div><br/><div>wrote<p>Are you sure? </p></div><br/><div>wrote<p>Are you sure? </p></div><br/><div>wrote<p>Are you sure? </p></div><br/><div>wrote<p>Are you sure? </p></div><br/><div>wrote<p>Are you sure? </p></div><br/><div>wrote<p>Are you sure? </p></div><br/><div>wrote<p>Are you sure? </p></div><br/><div>wrote<p>Are you sure? </p></div><br/><div>wrote<p>Are you sure? </p></div><br/><div>wrote<p>Are you sure? </p></div><br/><div>wrote<p>Are you sure? </p></div><br/><div>wrote<p>Are you sure? </p></div><br/><div>wrote<p>Are you sure? </p></div><br/><div>wrote<p>Are you sure? </p></div><br/><div>wrote<p>Are you sure? </p></div><br/><div>wrote<p>Are you sure? </p></div><br/><div>wrote<p>Are you sure? </p></div><br/><div>wrote<p>Are you sure? </p></div><br/><div>wrote<p>Are you sure? </p></div><br/><div>wrote<p>Are you sure? </p></div><br/><div>wrote<p>Are you sure? </p></div><br/><div>wrote<p>Are you sure? </p></div><br/><div>wrote<p>Are you sure? </p></div><br/><div>wrote<p>Are you sure? </p></div><br/><div>wrote<p>Are you sure? </p></div><br/><div>wrote<p>Are you sure? </p></div></div></div></div><div><h4>Similar Projects</h4><br/><br/><div><div>Project Owner Contributor</div><br/><br/><div>Project Owner Contributor</div><br/><br/><div>Project Owner Contributor</div></div></div><br/><br/><div><h3>Does this project spark your interest?</h3><p>to follow this project and never miss any updates</p></div><br/><div><div><p>By using our website and services, you expressly agree to the placement of our performance, functionality, and advertising cookies.</p></div><div>Ok, I agree</div></div><br/><br/><div><h4>Report project as inappropriate</h4><p>You are about to report the project "<b>Thor</b>", please tell us the reason.</p></div><br/><br/><div><h4>Send message</h4><p>Your application has been submitted.</p></div><br/><div><h4>Remove Member</h4><p>Are you sure you want to remove yourself as a member for this project?</p><p>Project owner will be notified upon removal.</p></div> | + | |typeproject=TUBerlin |
