using Dynamixel servos and ROS. A number of these robots
use the ArbotiX. Patrick Goebel (of pirobot.org) has used
the ArbotiX drivers to power his robot which recently
completed a two hour long navigation endurance test. The
ArbotiX+ROS combo is also behind the recently released
TurtleBot arm (Figure 4) — an AX- 12 based arm which was
originally developed for my Mini-Maxwell robot (Figure 5).
It uses the iRobot Create and many of the TurtleBot drivers.
All of these robots make use of ROS's arm navigation
capabilities which allow the arm to move around, avoiding
obstacles seen by the Kinect.
Conclusion
This article just barely scraped the surface of what is
out there today for people wanting to build a sophisticated,
sensor-based robot arm.
Next month, we'll take an in-depth look at the
construction of my robot Maxwell, who participated in the
RoboGames Symposium and won the 2011 AAAI Small-Scale Manipulation Challenge by playing a number of
awesome games of robot vs. robot chess. SV
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FIGURE 5.
Mini-Maxwell.
SERVO 04.2012 43
