That’s a really interesting design and I enjoyed your thought processes on the journey to this solution. I guess if you ended up routing power to these actuators, it would still be a much simpler task than the multiple connections it normally takes. Thanks for sharing.
Could you summarize if the use of belts is still popular with robotic arms in factories, and what are the advantages compared to cycloidal or harmonic drives?
Belts are still a popular choice for industrial robotic arms. The choice between belt drives or cycloidal and harmonic drives is really a matter of design preference and application. Belt drives provide a couple of advantages. For example, they are relatively easier to manufacture and can be a bit more forgiving to imperfections in manufacturing, they are lightweight and can absorb shocks better. Cycloidal or harmonic drives on the other hand need to be very precisely manufactured. So they can be expensive. But they can be relatively more compact and can provide higher reduction ratios. These are just a few pros and cons.
I had 2 reasons for that: 1) to reduce the distance between the two active pulleys, 2) to increase the engagement of the belt with the teeth of the smaller pully by making the belt wrap around the pulley a bit more. But in the next iteration of the actuator that I use in my video about the 6-axis robot, I have gotten rid of the idler and used a smaller timing belt. The actuator works great with this change too.
Not really. Servomotors, even the best ones, have backlash. Something like this is useful in applications where backlash needs to be kept at a minimum.
Perfect explanation. Thank you!
I am glad you liked it. Thanks for watching.
Great video! Just subscribed- I appreciate how you showed all of your design process and not just the "Right" answer!
Thank you!
Very impressive build and an interesting video! I immediately subscribed and I'm looking out to see what's next!!
Thank you! Next video on this is coming up very soon.
Good Explanation.
To the Point.
Thanks for watching!
That’s a really interesting design and I enjoyed your thought processes on the journey to this solution. I guess if you ended up routing power to these actuators, it would still be a much simpler task than the multiple connections it normally takes. Thanks for sharing.
Precisely. Worst case scenario is 2 power cables. Best case, no cables at all! Thank you for watching.
Thank u for sharing, style of explaining the topic is perfect. i understand to N.m at now
Thanks!
wooohhh ossum brother wating for your next video
Thank you! Next one is coming up soon!
Very informative video. THANKS. Do you have the model numbers of the Nema motors you used?
Glad you found it informative. This is the one that I used in this video:
17hs24-2104s
Could you summarize if the use of belts is still popular with robotic arms in factories, and what are the advantages compared to cycloidal or harmonic drives?
Belts are still a popular choice for industrial robotic arms. The choice between belt drives or cycloidal and harmonic drives is really a matter of design preference and application.
Belt drives provide a couple of advantages. For example, they are relatively easier to manufacture and can be a bit more forgiving to imperfections in manufacturing, they are lightweight and can absorb shocks better. Cycloidal or harmonic drives on the other hand need to be very precisely manufactured. So they can be expensive. But they can be relatively more compact and can provide higher reduction ratios.
These are just a few pros and cons.
Why did you add an idler between the timing belts?
I had 2 reasons for that: 1) to reduce the distance between the two active pulleys, 2) to increase the engagement of the belt with the teeth of the smaller pully by making the belt wrap around the pulley a bit more.
But in the next iteration of the actuator that I use in my video about the 6-axis robot, I have gotten rid of the idler and used a smaller timing belt. The actuator works great with this change too.
hello, isn't better to use servomotors?
Not really. Servomotors, even the best ones, have backlash. Something like this is useful in applications where backlash needs to be kept at a minimum.
very interesting, thanks for sharing, but the bigger problem is what are we going to do when AI driven robots make most of us useless?
Thanks!
Haha. Then we just make better AI driven robots to make the older AI driven robots useless!