Wave your hand to control OWI Robotic Arm… no strings attached

THE IDEA:

There are at least 4 other projects on Instructables.com (as of May 13, 2015) around modifying or controlling OWI Robotic Arm. Not surprisingly, since it is such a great and inexpensive robotic kit to play with. This project is similar in spirit (i.e, control the Robotic Arm with Arduino), but different in the approach.

 

The idea is to be able to control the Robotic Arm wirelessly using gestures. Also, I tried to keep modifications of the Robotic Arm to a minimum, so it could still be used with the original controller.

Sounds simple.

What it ended up being is a three-part project:

1. A glove fitted with enough sensors to control a LED and 5 motors
2. An Arduino Nano based transmitter device to accept control commands from the glove and send it wirelessly to the Arm controller device
3. An Arduino Uno-based wireless receiver and motor control device attached to the OWI Robotic Arm

FEATURES

1. Support for all 5 Degrees Of Freedom (DOF) and the LED
2. Big Red Button – to immediately stop the motors on the Arm preventing damage
3. Portable modular design

For mobile users: the “promotional video” of this project is on YouTube here.

Step 1: Parts

GLOVE:

You will need the following to build a glove controller:

1. Isotoner Smartouch Tech Stretch Stitched Glove (or similar) – on Amazon.com
2. Spectra Symboflex Sensor 2.2″ – on Amazon.com
3. GY-521 6DOF MPU6050 3 Axis Gyroscope + Accelerometer Module – on Fasttech.com
4. 2X5 BOX HEADER STRAIGHT – on Phoenixent.com
5. 2X5 IDC SOCKET-RECEPTACLE – on Phoenixent.com
6. FLAT RIBBON CABLE 10 Conductor .050″ Pitch – on Phoenixent.com
7. 2 x 5mm LEDs – Green and Yellow
8. 2 x Small Buttons
9. Resistors, wires, needle, black thread, glue gun, soldering gun, solder, etc.

 

TRANSMISSION STRAP-ON BOX:

1. Arduino Compatible Nano v3.0 ATmega328P-20AU Board – on Fasttech.com
2. nRF24L01+ 2.4GHz Wireless Transceiver Arduino Compatible – on Amazon.com
3. Gymboss WRISTBAND – on Amazon.com
4. 9V Battery Holder Box Case with Wire Lead ON/OFF Switch – on Amazon.com
5. 2X5 BOX HEADER STRAIGHT – on Phoenixent.com
6. 9v battery
7. 47uF (50v) capacitor
8. Resistors, wires, glue gun, soldering gun, solder, etc.

OWI ROBOTIC ARM CONTROLLER BOX:

1. Arduino Compatible Uno R3 Rev3 Development Board – on Fasttech.com
2. Prototype Shield DIY KIT for Arduino (or similar) – on Amazon.com
3. nRF24L01+ 2.4GHz Wireless Transceiver Arduino Compatible – on Amazon.com
4. 3 x L293D 16-pin Integrated Circuit IC Motor Driver – on Fasttech.com
5. 1 x SN74HC595 74HC595 8-Bit Shift Register With 3-State Output Registers DIP16 – on Amazon.com
6. 47uF (50v) capacitor
7. Box for Arduino – on Amazon.com
8. On/Off switch
9. 2 x 13mm buttons (one Red and one Green caps)
10. 2 x 2X7 BOX HEADER STRAIGHT – same as above on Phoenixent.com
11. FLAT RIBBON CABLE 14 Conductor .050″ Pitch – same as above on Phoenixent.com
12. 9v battery + clip-on connector
13. Resistors, wires, glue gun, soldering gun, solder, etc.

… and of course:

OWI Robotic Arm Edge – Robot arm – OWI-535 – on Adafruit.com

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