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2DOF Drawing Robotic Arm

A low-cost 2-degree-of-freedom drawing arm that moves precisely within a roughly 156 mm by 156 mm workspace.

  • Robot arm
  • Open source
  • arduino
  • 3D printable

Suggested by Robotheca, created by @AWalkerPerez (opens in a new tab), from github.com/AWalkerPerez/drawing-robot-arm (opens in a new tab). Pinned to commit 1c82d49 (opens in a new tab).

Fork on GitHub (opens in a new tab)Download the files at this commit (.zip)
Hardware license
MIT (opens in a new tab)
Software license
MIT (opens in a new tab)
Commercial use
Allowed

Photo and 3D model

2DOF Drawing Robotic Arm, photo from its repository
Photo:@AWalkerPerez (opens in a new tab)MITsource file (opens in a new tab)

3D preview converted from github.com/AWalkerPerez/drawing-robot-arm at 1c82d49, under MIT. View the original files from GitHub (1.8 MB) (opens in a new tab)

Degrees of freedom
2
Reach
156 mm

What it can do

Written by Robotheca from the project's documents.

  • Draws with a 2-degree-of-freedom arm in a workspace of about 156mm x 156mm.
  • Accepts (X,Y) target points from a MATLAB GUI and moves the arm to them.
  • Uses analytical inverse kinematics with PID control per motor.
  • Streams measured joint angles back to MATLAB and plots desired versus actual position.
  • Offline MATLAB scripts compute forward/inverse kinematics, Jacobians and manipulability without hardware.

Bill of materials

This repository has no parts list Robotheca can read yet.

Build guide

The creator's steps, each with its instructions.

  1. 1Print parts from cad/
  2. 2Assemble and wire using electronics/
  3. 3Upload Arduino code from firmware/arduino/
  4. 4Run the MATLAB GUI in matlab/gui/ to send (X,Y) targets

The guide appears here as you scroll.

Guide by @AWalkerPerez (README.md), under MIT.

More guides

Wiring and electronics

Notes written by Robotheca from the project's documents.

Main parts

  • Arduino Uno R4 controller board.
  • L298N dual H-bridge motor driver.
  • Two DC geared motors with quadrature encoder outputs (A/B) per the firmware README.
  • Potentiometers are mentioned in the electronics README as position feedback, which conflicts with the firmware README's encoders.
  • 12V DC supply rated 12V, 5A.

Connections

  • 12V supply +12V and GND connect to the L298N; Arduino GND connects to L298N GND for a common ground.
  • Motors are powered through the L298N 12V rail, not from the Arduino 5V pin.
  • Motor 1 uses L298N OUT1/OUT2 and Motor 2 uses OUT3/OUT4.
  • Encoder A/B channels: M1 on A3 and A2, M2 on A1 and D11; encoder A pins use interrupts.
  • L298N direction pins: M1 on D4 and D5, M2 on D7 and D8.
  • L298N enable PWM pins: M1 ENA on D6, M2 ENB on D9.
  • Serial link to MATLAB at 9600 baud over USB.