Students in engineering Senior Design Project making a robot arm. They want Maker input.

[Nick Vermeer]

Hey all! This is Nick Vermeer from NYCResistor. Sorry if this is a bit spammy, but these folks seem determined to make a cool product.

I've been helping these students with some questions they have about making a robot arm for makers. The goal would be to make a CNC arm that can be used to actually complete tasks rather than be a research item, while still being hackable and open.  If you'd like to help, there's a survey below. I've also included their initial communication with us.

Link to survey: https://docs.google.com/a/seas.upenn.edu/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeWkQiceEl_mUM1GEVpWrsDmn_Zb1PGUnO2Zzpi4_SQtFFGuw/viewform

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Dear NYC Resistor,

We are a motivated Senior Design team of Mechanical and Electrical engineering students from the University of Pennsylvania looking to create a more cost effective and versatile robotic arm for the maker community. We envisioned an open-source platform where makers can program the arm to perform a variety of different tasks. Some of these tasks may be performed autonomously, while in other cases, the robot could assist the maker with an extra set of hands.

We were wondering what sort of specifications or capabilities you and the maker community would find useful in a product like this. Are there specific problems that you think should be addressed? What requirements should the project adhere to, including: cost, size, payload, etc.?

We would love to have your input and feedback. Please do not hesitate to contact us with further questions.

Thank you for your time and assistance.

Sincerely,

Anna Brill, Alissa Johnson, Will Johnson, Ben Kramer, Rachel Rusonis, Cam Zawacki

Students, Mechanical Engineering & Applied Mechanics and Electrical & Systems Engineering

University of Pennsylvania