Artistic Robotic Arm

Published on 20 May 2022. Written by Jagmohan

Robotic arm is one of the biggest milestone in automation industry. It has made the process in the assembly line of cars very fast and automatic. In this project, you will develop a robotic arm that can draw and paint for you. It will be capable of converting a digital image into a canvas.

You will use Raspberry Pi 3 as the brain of the system. A few high torque motors to design and fabricate the body of the robotic arm. A web camera will track the progress.

This project will involve concepts like image and video processing. You will use Python to program the Raspberry Pi. Choose a digital image that you want to print on the canvas. Once you run the code, you can observe the robotic arm painting like a human.

Project Description:

Raspberry Pi 3: It is a third-generation, single-board computer. It contains a 64 bit quad-core processor. The clock speed is 1.5 GHz. An external micro SD card provides memory to Raspberry Pi. You can give instructions using the Raspbian OS.

Raspbian OS: It is similar to Windows or Ubuntu OS. You can code the Raspberry Pi using Python in the Raspbian OS. It is user-friendly and allows multi-tasking.

High Torque Servo Motors: It allows a rotation of 180 degrees. Three or more servo motors are attached using mechanical parts. Using this, the robotic arm can move in all three dimensions.

Web Camera: It will keep recording the progress made by the robotic arm. It will compare the digital image with the canvas. It works as the feedback mechanism for the whole system.

Python: You can give instructions to Raspberry Pi using Python. You will use OpenCV library for image and video processing.

Spray Paint/Paint brush/Pencil: As per your need, you can use any one of these. It will give you the final output of this project.

Canvas: The robotic arm will draw or paint on the canvas. You can choose the size of the canvas as per the need.

Project implementation:

Begin with the fabrication of the robotic arm. Use components like bearings, clamps, screws and nuts. Design it for a 3 dimensional motion.
Fabricate a pedestal and mount the web camera on the top.
Attach the spray paint/paint brush/ pencil at the functional end of the robotic arm.
Type the code for reading the digital image.
Type the code for movement of the servo motors to do the drawing/painting.
Type the code for the camera to track the progress.
Interface the robotic arm and the web camera with the Raspberry pi. Use appropriate wires to do so.
Run the code and experience the magic of automation.

Programming language: Python

Kit required to develop Artistic Robotic Arm:

Technologies you will learn by working on Artistic Robotic Arm:

Artistic Robotic Arm

Any Questions?

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