Arduino Robot Arm

An experienced CNC machinist/entrepreneur who is also an old friend of ours gifted us an arduino kit to play with. He has been designing and crafting his own robot arm as a hobby for many years in his factory in Mainland China. He directed us to many online resources and guided us into making a simple robotic arm toy by following an online Instructables project.

We were able to follow the instructions to 3D print and assemble most of the parts in the studio. When we got stuck in sourcing a few brass tubes for the joints, our experienced friend was able to send us the precise custom-made parts within days! When the robot arm was done, we added a bluetooth interface to control it wirelessly using a tablet. We demoed the final robot arm model before our old friend over a delightful dinner celebration.

This little project brought back wonderful memories of our studio founder’s long forgotten undergraduate days. On top of that, we were very grateful to reconnect and be inspired by our old friend, a successful “70-yr-old” self-taught CNC machinist/entrepreneur who still has a ferocious appetite in learning and experimenting new things!