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Top Performing URC Arms
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Teams are ordered based on overall score, not score for equipment/delivery missions. The true order of best performing arms may slightly vary, but since the arm is used in two missions overall score was taken
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-Two aluminum fingers
-Same fingers used for all missions
-Claw rotation is driven by single motor (not differential)
-No allen key attachment (grabbing screwdriver instead)
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-Linear axis used on forearm (its like a piston forearm, hard to tell what drive they used for this but its probably regular gearing)
-Regular spur gear drives used on wrist/claw
-Belt drives used on shoulder
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-Carbon fiber tubing is used on the z axis articulating shoulder
-The rest of the arm (forearm, claw) seems to be a mix of round and square aluminum tubing, with minimal or no 3D printed parts noticed
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-Four finger aluminum(?) gripper on claw used for all missions
-Claw rotation is driven by single motor (not differential)
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Regular gearing on claw (i think, can't tell but it looks just like regular spur gearing)
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-Pretty much exclusively aluminum box tube
-Shit ton of 3D printed parts for all the belt drives
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-Lead screw is used to make claw non backdriveable for better gripping (or so they claim)
-Claw housing looks like its assembled from laser cut fiberboard, and actual two finger grippers are 3D printed
-Finger grippers are swappable and have different designs for each mission (science, equipment, delivery)
-they have a pencil attachment to operate the keyboard, but it doesn't look like they have an allen key attachment
-single motor drives claw rotation (not differential)
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-Regular spur gears used to drive wrist
-Looks like pretty much exclusively made from aluminum box tube with a bunch of welded flanges
-Carbon fiber tubing used on other parts of their rover, but doesn't look like its on arm
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-Technically two fingers constructed from aluminum as grippers, but there is a cut in the middle of the gripper allowing for four points of contact with items they grab
-Different grippers used to collect soil samples (also made from aluminum)
-Single motor drives rotation of claw (not differential)
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-Looks like they used belt drives everywhere except for wrists
-Not too sure what to call thier turntable. It looks like 3/4 of a differential joint, with one bevel gear on the bottom and two on the left/right but non on the top
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-They used a differential wrist with custom 3D printed gears
-Two 3D printed gripping fingers
-One interesting thing is that they use what looks like a sharpie end fired like a piston to interact with the keyboard
-Entire end effector is double sided (one side for grippers, another side for this big end effector tool with different tool attachments)
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-Belt driven arm base. I'm guessing they use belt drivers on other parts of the arm too, but its hard to tell
-Worm gears used everywhere on wrist
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-Aluminum sheets for the shoulder joint
-Looks like maybe fibgerglass(? or painted wood lol) U-Channel to serve as forearm
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-Two 3D printed grippers
-Continuous rotation achieved through worm gear (not differential)
-There are custom screwdrivers mounted to the frame of the chassis (like in a pocket) that the arm picks up to use for missions
-They might be using springs to reduce backlash?
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-Lead screw driven two finger end effector
-Also has the solenoid to interact with keyboard
-Has slot for allen key attachment
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-Arm is partially controlled by two linear actuators
-No information in video or website on drives used for other joints sadly
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-Two split aluminum grippers allowing for 4 points of contact with rubber grip pads
-Differential wrist drives rotation using bevel gears
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-End effector has three 3D printed fingers that are spring loaded
-Claw rotation is 360 degree and driven by single motor
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-Bevel gearbox on wrist
-very few details on arm in their video
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-Two finger grippers made from aluminum with some resin formed honey comb pattern for extra grip?
-Grippers driven by linear actuators
-They have a pointy stick for the keyboard task
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2019 Key Takeaways
- Overall, Ryerson had the best score in both retrieval and equipment servicing missions. They are also the only team with a cylindrical arm, so that might be something to keep in mind
- Stanford and Michigan scored second/third in the equipment servicing task respectively. Maybe its worth looking into belt drives again? Also, both these teams employed a solenoid push pin to interact with the keyboard
- Carbon fiber tubing, and tubing in general is a VERY common material used to construct the arm. This could also facilitate cable routing!
- Two teams on this list with differential wrist scored very similarly in equipment servicing mission, with scores of 47 & 49.
- Cylindrical and Scara arms both performed surprisingly well, although articulated arms were by far the most common design