Forearm Actuator

Our quest to design and develop an affordable medium size industrial robotic arm resulted in the following baseline requirements:

1. Our robotic arm must be able to carry a payload of about 100kg.
2. Our robotic arm must have a reach of about 2m.
3. Our robotic arm must have a tool tip positional accuracy of 0.5mm.
4. Our robotic arm must be able to work in harsh environments. This environment stemmed from our vision to supply low cost Cobots for widespread industrial use

A tall order, as similar industrial robots commonly achieve positional end effector accuracy of about 1mm. Achieving 0.5mm proved to be very challenging, but also very rewarding. Rewarding in that a number of innovative technologies developed out of the challenge: innovative technologies with great market potential such as our MFEA encoder.

To save volume and weight, our first functional robotic arm, ADM1 was powered by a VW wiper motors in conjunction with an inexpensive tension based chain and sprocket drivetrain. Such a drivetrain is different from those found in typical industrial robots and it turned out to be greatly advantageous.