Newsgroups: comp.robotics
Path: cantaloupe.srv.cs.cmu.edu!das-news2.harvard.edu!news2.near.net!news.mathworks.com!udel!rochester!jag
From: Martin Jagersand  <jag@cs.rochester.edu>
Subject: Where to find material for small robot arm?
Message-ID: <199503050244.VAA00870@vein.cs.rochester.edu>
Sender: jag@cs.rochester.edu (Martin Jagersand)
Organization: University of Rochester Computer Science Dept
Date: Sat, 4 Mar 95 21:44:11 EST
X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.3 PL8]
Lines: 49

We are a student group building a small 3 DOF serial link robot 
arm as a project in a ME design class. To give you an idea of the scale 
here are some specs:

Workspace greater than 0.03 $m^3$ (i.e. should be able to reach
about 0.2 m in each direction from the base).
Payload more than 0.1 kg.
Cost less than \$ 500 to build.

Inspired by Bill Townsend's WAM, Jill Crisman et al's  Graspar and some
other recent constructions we are looking into a tendon driven design.

We have a first design we would like to try out, and now we need
some help finding suppliers for the parts we need. In particular
we need sources for:

   	Alu tubes (rectangular and round profile)
	Wires for tendons, like bike wires, but preferably thinner.
	Alu Pulleys
	Shafts
	Bearings

The local hobby and hardware stores we checked don't seem to carry 
much of a selection of these kinds of parts. We are hoping to buy parts 
reasonably cheap by mailorder. Any suggestions of sources would be greatly
appreciated.

Also please tell us if there are any discount suppliers of RC-servos.
We have been quoted prices in the $50-60 range for the stronger servos
(5-10kgcm). Is this reasonable?

I checked Roger Arrick's list of suppliers on 
"http://www.robotics.com/mechpart.html" (Thank's Roger for making the list)
What I couldn't find on the list is a general supplier of all (or at
least most) kinds of parts for small mechanical projects. And who
sells them in hobbyist suitable quantities. 

Thanks,
Martin

(PS When built we indent to use the robot arm in visual servoing
experiments. For more deatails on that check my www/mosaic pages
(address below))

--
Martin Jagersand                 email: jag@cs.rochester.edu
Computer Science Department             jag@cs.chalmers.se
University of Rochester          Fax:   (716) 461-2018
Rochester, NY 14627-0226         WWW: http://www.cs.rochester.edu/u/jag/
