Where has the year gone?

I made a major breakthrough in the early part of the year when I decided that we would become even more un-accordion like – that is a keyboard and a buttonboard (Launchpad) for each hand. In addition, and possible a world first, I proposed a scheme whereby the keyboards would track the movement of the hands. They would do this by monitoring the hand positions (using sensors attached to the palms). Robotic “wrists” would perform the actual movements to maintain the alignment.

In the previous post, I showed a simple proof-of-concept to test out various sensors and ways to be able to move the keyboards in the appropriate planes. And what I have been doing since, and no small feat, is to learn robotics, and test out a system that would be able to move the keyboards (and at nearly 2kg for the keyboard/Launchpad combo have sufficient oomph). Here are some views of my first prototype – they work but I am not convinced that they are robust enough so I am currently working on version 2.

The movement in 2 planes is achieved by a differential mechanism (see here and below) using 2 stepper motors. Whilst the system works fairly well, I don’t think that the belt drives I chose are strong enough. Because I don’t need 360 degree movement in either plane, I am working on a modified system where the belts are replaced with strong cords and fixed in place on the pulleys. All will become clear soon.