Hi all, I designed a tool that uses a suction cup as the end effector.

I bought a suction cup & vacuum pump similar to what’s found here and designed a 3D printed holder that interfaces with the Thor robot. The kit comes with a controller that converts a servo-type pwm signal to an on-off power output for the vacuum pump. So it easily connects to the same pwm signal that the original gripper uses. You will need a separate 5-6V power supply for the pump, as the current draw is too much for the Arduino’s onboard 5V supply. What I did was make a 6V regulator that feeds directly from the 12V input supply.
The 45 degree angle of the tool helps the robot have a better work envelope. When coupled with the modded Art2BodyUnion part I posted previously, the robot can pick up objects as close as 14cm from the center of the base, to as far as 40cm.
I threaded the vacuum tube down through the inside of the robot, and have the pump in the robot’s base, which
keeps the weight in the arm down.
Here is the STL file and FreeCAD design.
Video
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This topic was modified 3 weeks, 3 days ago by
imernchavez.