Smartphone Controlled robotic arm

For my final milestone, I was able to get all four servo motors working with the app. Some difficulties I had with this milestone were that the app and code were not working and the servo motors were overheating. I used the prebuilt app and code to get it working before my demo night. To stop the servo motors from overheating, I used the 6v battery pack rather than the 5v portable charger. I also noted that sometimes one grip servo motor wouldn’t work which I would definitely look into in the future. Another issue I saw was that the robot was jittery. I would fix this soon by adding capacitors. In the future, I would add ultrasonic sensors and maybe even add low AI. Through building this robotic arm I learned I have a passion for mechanical engineering and I also like to create Arduino projects. I can definitely improve my coding and debugging skillset. Overall I enjoyed building this arm and the Bluestamp experience was amazing.

for my second milestone, I connected the Bluetooth module to my smartphone and got 1 servo motor on the robotic arm to move through the app. Throughout the second milestone, I had some problems that threw me off course. One was the HM-10 Bluetooth module not working and the other was the app not working. Every time I tried to connect to the HM-10 Bluetooth module I had a hard time since sometimes it wouldn’t power on or other times it just wouldn’t connect. I fixed this problem by simple rewiring and also added resistors to make sure it wouldn’t overheat. In order to fix the app, I deleted everything, took a tutorial, and made that app. For my next milestone I am going to get all servo motors working with the app.

For my first milestone, I made three of my four servo motors to run off a battery pack and perform a simple code. Since I went to Bluestamp last year and built a fingerprint recognition keypad safe, I was able to remember some main ideas on circuits/Arduino. However, I still took some time to review in order to avoid and major/minor obstructions. After reviewing I started to build my arm by using a screwdriver to put together the components of the arm. Building the arm itself took about 3 days and after I decided to start on the Arduino and electronics of the arm. I refreshed my memory on how to use a servo with an Arduino by watching a few videos. The connections took about a day when I realized part of my Arduino and one of my servo motors was getting hot. I removed everything and rewired the next day when I discovered that it was because I should be using a 6-volt battery pack and not the portable charger.