Calligraphy Robot

The final result.

The Cornell Cup Competition presented by Intel took place May 2-3 in FL. Unfortunately, while all our electronics departed with us, not all of them arrived in Florida. We were able to rig together a solution using an Arduino, a motor shield, a laptop, and a couple of chunky 12V batteries.

We didn't have time to get the font working, but with an hour left in the competition we were able to draw the lines in the video above. The desired force is set to fluctuate at set intervals, varying the first two lines and the sin curve between thin and thick periodically. The 3rd line is a slow increase from a medium line to a thick line.

Our robot drawing a curved line.

All assembled!!!!!

Accurate.

Also,

Yeah....

The configuration for our Series Elastic Actuators. SEAs are cool because they decouple the motor and the load. That means when our pen hits the paper, the springs flex a bit to absorb the force of the impact and the motor doesn't feel it at all.

The motor is protected by its shield of mighty springs.

Us: "Since we're in the subbasement without any windows, it's really easy to pull all-nighters. The fluorescent lights look exactly the same at 4pm and 4am."

Him: "Forget that. If anything has to be done at 4am I will take that zero."

Us:

We've got motors mounted on to the two linear axes and the first of two rotation joints mounted. All of the motors are mounted with clamps that we 3d printed.