6. Final Design and Demonstration (ALAG)

Our final design was a remake of our second prototype, with the inclusion of the first prototype of the claw. It featured new bearings to reduce friction as well as our new claw design. In our final demonstration, we allowed our input motor to run continuously at 10 rpm, facilitating the motion of the arm. Once the claw reached the object-pickup side, we held our finger in place to manually press a button to close the ratchet. Similarly, once the claw reached the object-release side, we held our finger in position to actuate the claw open. Between a few passes, we were able to demonstrate the successful pick and place of small and large objects alike.

The movement of our mechanism itself worked well, and we were able to explain the intended manufacturing environment. However, the weight of the claw eventually left to hitches in the motion and a general shake, which can be seen in the video on the left side above. For a future implementation, we would want our finger to be replaced with a beam built into the frame on either side of the design to allow for autonomous functionality. To make our design warehouse ready, we would want to pair the periodic motion of the arm with parallel conveyor belts that incrementally translate objects. To achieve segmented object traversal so our grabber can pick up the object while stationary, we can also implement a Geneva drive mechanism.

Project Poster: