Braccio robotic arm comes with a detailed assembly instruction manual that can be found here, download an electronic copy. Besides, Arduino.org has also provided a video that shows step by step instructions on how to assemble the robotic arm.
Braccio Motor Shield:
The Braccio Motor shield is used to drive the six servo motors. The shield will be installed stacked directly onto the Arduino UNO or Arduino Mega 2560 boards. The Braccio shield connectors labeled M1 through M6 are connected to the PWM capable outputs of the Arduino board and are used to drive the six servo motors of the Braccio robotic arm. Besides, the 4-pin TWI connector (blue) allows the Arduino board to communicate with devices that support the TWI (Two Wire Interface) or I2C (Inter-Integrated Circuit) protocol through the Wire library in Arduino.
The Braccio Motor Shield has 12 standard 3-pin connectors. The orange connectors labeled M1 through M6 are connected to the PWM capable outputs of the Arduino board and they can drive servo motors or LED lights. The connectors labeled I0 through I5 are analog inputs.
The terminal connectors on the Braccio Motor Shield are connected to the following pins on the shield and the Arduino board: Connector label Shield pin
M1 11 M2 10 M3 9 M4 6 M5 5 M6 3 I0 A0 (aka 14) I1 A1 (15) I2 A2 (16) I3 A3 (17) I4 A4 (18) I5 A5 (19) TWI SCL, SDA Serial RX0, TX0 Software:
Now is the time to play with Braccio. First, download the TinkerKit Braccio Library either from Arduino website or using the Library manager of the Arduino Software (IDE) and search for Braccio.The only two functions from the downloaded library are Braccio.Begin() and Braccio.ServoMovement (step delay, M1, M2, M3, M4, M5, M6). By using these two functions, the basic movements of the arm can be performed. Simple movement test: The function Braccio.servoMovement will be used to set all the servos motors to their desired positions including a milliseconds delay between the movements. Please refer to the paragraph above, "Braccio shield connectors" to set the parameters for the step delay and to identify each motors. The following code is taken from Arduino IDE example folder. Open Arduino sketch and locate the example file. File => examples => simpleMovements simpleMovements.ino #include <Braccio.h>
#include <Servo.h>
Servo base;
Servo shoulder;
Servo elbow;
Servo wrist_rot;
Servo wrist_ver;
Servo gripper;
void setup() {
Braccio.begin();
}
void loop() {
/*
Step Delay: a milliseconds delay between the movement of each servo.
Allowed values from 10 to 30 msec.
M1=base degrees. Allowed values from 0 to 180 degrees
M2=shoulder degrees. Allowed values from 15 to 165 degrees
M3=elbow degrees. Allowed values from 0 to 180 degrees
M4=wrist vertical degrees. Allowed values from 0 to 180 degrees
M5=wrist rotation degrees. Allowed values from 0 to 180 degrees
M6=gripper degrees. Allowed values from 10 to 73 degrees.
10: is open, and 73: is closed.
*/
// (step delay, M1, M2, M3, M4, M5, M6);
Braccio.ServoMovement(20, 0, 15, 180, 170, 0, 73);
//Wait 1 second
delay(1000);
Braccio.ServoMovement(20, 180, 165, 0, 0, 180, 10);
//Wait 1 second
delay(1000);
} »»» END of Braccio Robotic Arm »»»
For more fun with Braccio, please visit the project "Voice-activated Robotic Arm" section of this website
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