Building projects with microcontrollers (especially Arduinos as of late) opens minds to an unlimited amount of innovations. Whether the projects are created for fun, or to serve specific purposes, they can always motivate others to be creative. The latest Arduino powered creation comes from Ekaggrat, an inspired individual with a strong interest in science.
Ekaggrat has created a robotic arm that writes down the time by the minute on a dry-erase board. After a minute is up it erases the digit and rewrites the new time. It is driven by four servos that control the arm and hand movements. Two 9G metal gear RC servos move the arm while two 4.5G ultralight servos control the hand movements. Using servos makes it a little loud and noisy and limits the accuracy of the robotic hand writing. However, there still can be improvements to be made such as a change to stepper motors to improve accuracy.
Nonetheless, the creation is truly inspiring and the programming that it takes to complete a project such as this is difficult. Keeping track of the timing, 4 servos, and 7-segment display writing orientation in sync with one another is impressive for a hobby project. This goes to show that the amount of creations possible with technology is limitless.
Eavesdropper
