Would You Like To RoadTest a Servo Driver for a Robotic Gripper?

I might be interested if I had a robot of this caliber, but I am a long way from having an appropriate platform.

This poll seems to exist twice on my E14 - once with the description of the board and Doug's comment, and  and once without.

Apart from that, the problem is that this board seems to be aimed at a very specialised market.

There is an article about it here:

https://www.automation-mag.com/news/41217-trinamic%E2%80%99s-open-source-reference-design-shrinks-and-speeds-development…

Interesting, but - I think you need a £100k robot to test it on, not to mention the robot test lab etc.

This just isn't viable for the typical RoadTester - and I doubt very much if the economics of RoadTesting would work out either - a free £500 board isn't going to count for much in a £1k+ per day test lab.

MK

I don't know much about such control mechanisms but would like to learn more from a hobbyist viewpoint. As michaelkellett mentions, the higher costs of this industrial board may mean I am not the ideal candidate. That said I would still apply with the possibility I am chosen and can (1) help Trinamic identify any product documentation and software issues from a newcomers perspective and (2)  to learn something new.

A motor and load sensor would help make a better roadtest package. I'd have a look and suggest something suitable in my application for my intended project. The proximity sensor isn't such and issue (if needed for the roadtest project) as it would be made from IR LED etc. "Anything else?" My existing PSU is 15v 3A and therefore a item such as this 30v 5A PSU from CPC Farnell would also be very helpful .

In terms of a roadtest project I would plan to design a generic bench-mounted gripper using OpenSCAD and print using my 3D printer, which mounts the supplied motor, load cell and proximity sensor. This design would also include a simple servo control to lift the gripper. Using a RS485 driver board I'd utilise the Trinamic's TMCL libraries to control the board - probably settling on the RPi and C. I may decide however to use Labview from a PC as I see that is also supported. The gripper would be tested against a range of sample items of various composition to see how the software can utilise the proximity and motor control allowing faster approaches to the test items before using torque control before adjusting the final grip (with feedback from the load cell). A latter stage once gripped would be to power the servo and undertake a controlled lift of that item, pause whilst in air, lower and then release grip. The ultimate test I feel would be to lift an egg without any breakage !

As mentioned, I'm just intrigued about such technology and my approach is more akin to learning robotics in a University practical session. I don't currently have a huge yearning for build anything useful - but quickly can think of some cool projects such as a gripper in an automatic wire stripper.

I hope that helps answer some of your questions

Artie Johnson would say....verrrrrry interrresting......

A flyby of the spec sheet sounds like a stepper motor can be used, or a DC brushless with an encoder for vector control of torque (hopefully self tunes )

Could do some testing without a gripper, but having a gripper makes more sense. A load cell feedback (on gripper touch point) to the controller makes sense too.

Does the vendor have a test GUI to send RS485, EtherCAT, IO-Link using vendors protocol on a PC to this controller ?  Configuration software with self tuning & calibration ?

Like other commenters have mentioned, the material list and knowledge required for RoadTesting seems fairly significant for a layman, but E14 has some pretty knowledgeable folks available.

Looks interesting, but you'd need a motor, sensor(s)/encoder, and some cables just to start it up.  Is the vendor looking for feedback on hardware/software or interfacing?

Scott

It's very cool - but I don't think that I could build a suitable gripper.

I've got some experience with using robotic grippers - specifically this UR5e robot and Robotiq gripper. Unfortunately I no longer have access to them as development has finished and they're now being used in their final installation.

This strikes me as a very difficult product to effectively road test. The hardest parts about using this would be the physical build of the gripper and interfacing with the robot in a way that proves useful. Unless you just happened to have a robot already and be trying to build your own gripper this would be difficult. Did the manufacturer give any suggestions as to what they were expecting?

I actually have a gripper and arm still unassembled (waiting for a suitable application project) but that system is designed to use standard hobby PWM "servo" motors.

The company I work for makes big grippers to handle explosives remotely (no hobby parts involved), but those systems are already in production.