August Projects Update 3

Delta Robots are fast parallel robots. A simple and elegant design capable of high speed precision movement over a parallel work surface.

Delta Robot

Making a working delta robot has been a goal of mine for some time now. Now that I have the time and resources I plan on making one that is capable of assembling me sandwich's ;) ... I like delta robots because they are so fast and simple to make. However they are tricky to program in some applications such as in a CNC the math can be very complex. But they are simple to program for pick and place operations.


I made the end effector platform and base of the robot from plastic cutting boards which I picked up from the dollar store for 1.49$ CAD. A drill press, hacksaw and file where all that was needed to produce these parts!



To mount the servo motors to the base plastic L brackets were used, these were cut from corner guard material found in the painting section of my local hardware store.

Plastic beads from a necklace purchased at the dollar store and aluminum knitting needles were used to create double ended ball jointed arms for the delta robot. These form parallelograms with the end effector and base arms. I haven't finished making the ball joint pieces just yet...


Arms pieces were added to the servo horns on the finished base plate. The servos are mounted at 120 degree angles to each other. A hole was drilled through the middle of the base to allow the servo wires to be pushed through and kept clear of moving parts. The base arms are made of small pieces of gray PVC found in the plumbing section of my local hardware store.

I will post further updates on its construction later. I have yet to finish the ball joints on the arms and no controller has been added yet to test the servos. It also needs to be mounted over a workspace. I do plan to add a pneumatic suction cup to the end effector so that it can pick up things (such as pieces of bread, lettuce, meat and cheese) perhaps for making sammichs.. :P

Below are some examples of delta robot's just to get an idea of how the finished robot arm should look and how it operates in a workspace.


Example of Delta Robots in industry. mm pancakes.



Speed and percision example of Delta Robot.



Here is an example of a homemade M&M sorting Robot. I like the interesting straw / bead joints and the use of straws and light weight arm material! Brilliant!