Robot arm controlled by a Raspberry Pi

A set of printed components to build a robot arm that can be controlled and managed by any of the Raspberry Pi single board computers (SBCs),  

This robot arm project with Python software and documentation, available from here, developed for the Raspberry Pi Maker Kit v5.0, is based upon the open hardware design by phenoptix first published in Technology Robots in July’14. 

The original phenoptix design was for a set of laser cut components, so each item was inevitably a simple flat element made from 3mm thick acrylic sheet. These laser cut components were however converted to 3D printable components by Dingo_aus and posted to the ‘thingiverse’ web site in December ’14 (full details here) but they retained their ‘flat’ nature without really taking any of the advantages that 3D printing can bring to a design.

Starting from the .stl files created by Dingo_aus, further extensive updates and additions have been made for this revised design as well as some of the original files being ‘repaired’. Many more refinements are certainly possible with a full 3D approach now being used, and further design iterations may be made at a future date

This new build design includes a ‘normal’ plain base with built-in fittings for various battery power supply options as well as an optional LEGO compatible 'base' and other LEGOised components.

Detailed descriptions of all aspects of this evolving project are at this link and example software can be downloaded from here.

All the components use 1.75mm PLA and a layer height of 0.15mm with print details for each component produced on an i3 Mk3 shown in the table below.