Re: simple robotics project

In article <1180294858.044453.293030@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
dmehling@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:

Also, I mentioned that input would come by a button, but I would like
to try and have it be voice-activated. The only way I think I could
do this is by having a simple software program that is voice-activated
which would control this robotic arm. Is it very complicated to have
all input for control be activated by software?

No, that's not complicated. You just need to use a serial motor or
servo controller; Pololu (http://www.pololu.com) makes several of these.
You can then drive the controller directly from your desktop machine,
which will also be what responds to the voice command. Total budget
should be about $20 for the controller, maybe $40 or so for servos or
motors, and whatever misc. hardware you need for the arm, assuming you
already have a desktop computer with speech recognition. (It's built
into all Macs, but you may need to add a USB microphone.)

As for the motor vs. servo issue, for an application like this, I'd
suggest using servos, since they have built-in position control.
Lynxmotion sells some good (though not cheap) brackets that make it very
easy to connect servos in various ways.

Best,
- Joe
.

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