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"Mimic" Desktop robotic arm toy project

Created January 2020 by Trent M. Wyatt

Video link

• Box with two arms, each with 4 degrees of freedom: Waist, Elbow, Wrist, and Pincher.
• The first arm has a 5K or 10K potentiometer at each joint and the other arm has a servo at each joint.
• The first arm is the input arm, reading the 4 analog values from the pots
• The second arm is the output arm that can mimic the movements of the input arm
• A pushbutton and a bi-color LED are provided as input and output for setup, mode selection etc.
• An on/off switch is also included.
• A jumper is included to allow single or dual voltage sources for logic and servos
• Two 18650's power the logic and servos
• Built in USB battery charger

Current features:

• Allows the output arm to mimic the input arm in real time.
• The mimic can be disabled
• It can "park" the output arm so it lays flat across to box top
• Movements can be recorded and played back
• Recorded movements can be stored to/from EEPROM
• Uses Button "Gestures" to multiplex the functionality of the single control button
• During playback the "pinch" potentiometer controls the playback speed
• Uses lightweight dynamic template based storage for recording, playback, and parking sequences
• (hardware) Added a brace to pressure the wrist servo shaft so it stayspressed in (better: replace that servo)

Control by using the button with "gestures":

• Single Click: Toggle idle or mimic mode
• Single Click and Hold: Enter Recording Mode:
  • Single Click: Add position
  • Single Click and hold: Exit recording mode
• Double Click: Enter Playback Mode:
  • Any button press: Exit playback mode
• Double Click and Hold: Park the servo arm and save any recording to the EEPROM

TODO:

• Add googly eyes to servo arm :-)
• Add ability to play "Scissors/Rock/Paper" against the arm! :-)
• Add mic and op-amp to have dance-party mode!
• Enhance the output arm so it takes the position of each servo into accountwhen moving to a new set of positions so the deltas for each movementcan be evenly spread across a given amount of time. This will allowfurther enhancement as a "playback speed" setting can then be added.
• Add a SoftSerial port and implement an API to allow external control
• Add HM-10 Bluetooth module to SoftSerial port for wireless control
• Use the serial API to drive the armfrom my JavaChess repo
• Use the serial API to be able generate arm animations when someone scoresfrom my nhl/baseball game feeds repo