$9 Coca Cola Can Gripper for the RoboNova-1 ...

[CaptKill4Fun]

Hi,

I've made a prototype and it works enough to pick up a pen or pencil or other light weight objects ...

The servo is a $9 GWS micro servo you can get at any local hobby shop or online ... the basic concept is to make the gripper plate from a Coca Cola or other aluminum can, bend the gripper plate to shape of the drawing, attach the gripper plate to the servo, then use 5-minute epoxy to attach the servo to the metal forearm of the RoboNova-1 ... I choose the left arm but as you can see the drawing will allow either arm selection and you simply cut away the extra servo arm extension that's not used ...

In img
IMG_3851$9CocaColaGripper-c.jpg you can see that the extra servor extension is removed from the servo arm connector plate and a slit is cut to feed the servo cable through to allow the cable to act as the back axis extension ... hence the weakest part of the design ... but it works!

The reason for using 5-minute epoxy is it will hold stronger than the servor or Coca Cola gripper ... but will allow you to peel the servo off at a later date for changes or other upgrades ...


Here is the AutoCAD .DXF drawing ...

Here is the $9CocaColaGripper.jpg img file w/measurements

Here are a few photos of the installation;
IMG_3849$9CocaColaGripper-c.jpg

IMG_3851$9CocaColaGripper-c.jpg

IMG_3853$9CocaColaGripper-c.jpg

Sorry, this servo isn't strong enough to climb a rope, but it will hold a nice big tall felt tip pen for drawing pictures, or a laser pen for annoying people ... basically, it's giving the RoboNova-1 or any other bot a little more functionality for about $9 and 5-minutes of your building time ...