Interactive Telerobotics Exhibit

The goal of this project is to develop a robotic arm for an exhibit placed in the Discovery Center that will provide users with a first-person perspective of a remote workspace and allow them to interact with objects from a distance in order to complete a task. The robot workstation will have a tethered stationary base with sufficient degrees of freedom to manipulate (pick, orient, and place) objects of interest. The system will be capable of use with a specific task, such as stacking compliant objects, or playing a simple board game.

Objective
 Phase I (2017-2018 cycle): develop a single-user prototype of the telerobotic master/slave setup and validate function and durability. Phase II (2018-2019 cycle): extend the Phase I prototype to a mutli-user setup where 2 or more individuals can collaborate and/or compete in task completion.  

Required
 Safety of users and spectators at all times Robust design that withstands interaction by users of all ages and minimizes maintenance Intuitive design that allows users of all ages to easily and quickly understand the interfaces of the exhibit Maximal use of standard parts for replacement and repair ADA compliant and physically accessible to a range of heights from small children to adults</li> Minimal staff supervisions while on exhibit</li> Fit within 36" cube</li> Mobile (fit through a door frame and be movable with two people)</li> Internal mechanisms should be largely visible</li> </ul>

Preferred
 User vision of the exhibit should be restricted and user should be provided some form of 3D vision of the work space</li> Haptic feedback to the master controller</li> Large output device of visual feedback for spectators</li> </ul>

Robotic Arm
After researching robotic arms and the process of designing and assembling one, we decided to look into an open source option. This would allow us to have a good starting point much quicker than if we designed an arm from the bottom up. Many open source options also are made of 3D printed parts, which would allow our client to easily replace parts of the arm. We will then later make modifications to the arm to fit our design specifications. Below are two options we narrowed our design down to.

BCN3D Moveo
The BCN3D Moveo is an open source arm with 5 degrees of freedom. All pieces of the arm are 3D printable. The arm uses steppers and servo motors for movement and is controlled by an Arudino Mega. This arm was a serious consideration, but due to a lack in documentation and having one less degree of freedom than we wanted, we decided not to go with this option.



THOR
THOR is an open source arm with 6 degrees of freedom. This arm has 3D printable parts and users steppers and servo motors for movement. THOR is controlled using an Arduino Mega and uses an open source gcode-base firmware. One thing that put THOR in front of many other open source options we found was the extensive documentation of the development process. The THOR arm what we've decided to begin our robotic arm design with.