FarmBot on rails

[TomC]

If you’re looking for a robot arm mechanical concept, check my post from januari:

Farmbot on wheels

Alright, proof of concept for robot arm fabricated with steel wire and car window wiper motors is a partial succes. I wanted to make something like this: [image] but bigger, cheaper and stronger. partial result is: [image] It’s bigger and cheaper, not yet stronger… my production process was: create a template for the wireframes with bolts to bend the steel wire around (hardboard in the background) cut steel wire to length straighten the steel wires by twisting them by clamping on end in…

I’m quite optimistic about that concept and I can imagine making the production quite simple. The car wiper motors are bit too heavy, car window motors have plenty of power and you can scavenge 2 pairs of symmetric motors per donor car.

I put the arm on hold, currently, I’m working on positioning an wheeled robot, unchained, unlimited range. I tried D-GPS but just switched to Ardusimple RTK.

The concept of RTK-GPS comes at a cost (320€ incl shipping) and only works in free sky conditions, so I agree that, for a lot of situations (like a greenhouse), a rail would be better. Not sure if PVC pipes are strong enough. Maybe fill them up with concrete?