7 A RM A SSEMBLY - PAUL

Figure 7.1: The full arm assembly for the FudBot

7.1 O VERVIEW
The arm is a critical component of the FudBot. It uses both arms to perform any of the primary preparation tasks that it must perform. The arms are capable of chopping vegetables,
lifting pots, mixing batter and scraping pans. It does this through two six degree of freedom
arms that each have a passive tool changer on the end. The tool changer can alternate between different tools in order to carry out the robots multiple tasks.
FudBot is designed to undertake a large variety of tasks. Therefore, we designed the arm to

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have six degrees of freedom. There are two joints at the shoulder, one degree at the wrist and
an additional three degrees of freedom at the wrist. These joints allow the robot to put a tool
into any position and orientation that it needs. It is also able to reach critical areas of the
robot, such as the cutting board and the entrance to the compost bin
Each joint is also designed with load at the endpoint in mind. The maximum load that we
estimated our robot would lift is a pot of water with eight quarts of water in it. This weights
20lbs. Therefore, all of our motors are sized such that they can lift this weight with the arm
fully extended.
The FudBot arm is primarily made out of machined and anodized 6061 Aluminum for weight
reasons. Critical components such as shafts and gears are made out of stainless steel. These
materials make the arm easy to clean. The motors are all brushless DC motors, to provide a
long service life.

7.2 S HOULDER J OINTS

Figure 7.2: The full arm assembly for the FudBot

The shoulder joint is a two degree of freedom joint made with a differential. This allows the
joint to have two degrees of freedom, but not need to move either motor. This joint is also
the joint that must lift the greatest load in the arm. Therefore, it has been designed with
the largest motors and power transmission components throughout the arm. There are two
shoulder transmissions mounted in a single structure in order to conserve weight and create
a rigid connection between the two arms.

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7.2.1 S HOULDER J OINTS : S TRUCTURE

Figure 7.3: Structure of the Shoulder Assembly

The structure of the shoulder assembly is two plates vertically spaced apart from each other
by standoffs. This creates a structure that is very stiff and comparatively light. Each plate is
5/8 of an inch thick. Motors mount to these plates, as to all of the bearings to hold the differential carriers. Additionally, these plates are used to mount the system to the rest of the robot.

Figure 7.4: Differential Carrier - Redesign for Future Iterations

The plates support two differential carriers on angled roller bearings. The differential carriers

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are made of a machined aluminum. This gives the tolerances required for the bevel gears.
However, if this system were to be redesigned, the differential carriers would likely be made
out of several machined plates bolted together. This is because the current system is difficult
both to machine and assemble. A bolted assembly would be more linear to assemble and
would keep manufacturing costs down as well.
7.2.2 S HOULDER J OINTS : T RANSMISSION

Figure 7.5: Shoulder Transmission

The transmission was the driving design component of the arm. We decided to use a differential system so that we did not have moving motors, given that motors are heavy and
significantly increase the moment of inertia of the arm. This system keeps both motors fully
contained within the arm and makes the joint substantially more compact. The motors are
connected to the differential through a belt drive. All of the components are constrained to
shafts via spring pins or hexes, with the higher load shafts using hexes to avoid stress concentrations due to pins.
The differential is the same mechanism as a car differential, but the outputs and inputs are
reversed. When both motors are driven in the same direction, the middle bevel gear locks
and does not turn. Instead, the casing of the differential turns. This provides the joint around
the vertical axis. If the motors are driven in opposite directions, they drive the middle gear
and rotate the output shaft. This is the horizontal shoulder joint.
The differential housing is supported by two angled contact roller bearings. This supports the

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system against axial and radial forces. The bearings are preloaded by a pair of wave springs
that are recessed into the casing of the differential. The gears inside the differential created
a significant challenge when it came to space. The differential housings are very large and
we did not have enough space inside the housings to mount bearings in the center block.
Instead, we pressed bearings into the bevel gears and rigidly attached them to the shaft. Then
the other side of the shaft was supported by an additional bearing mounted in the upper and
lower plates.This is visible in Figure 7.6.

Figure 7.6: Cutaway of shoulder transmission assembly.

Finally, the output shaft is supported by an additional roller bearing. The output shaft is made
out of a 2" diameter tube for stiffness. There is a hex machined on the outside of the tube to
transfer torque to the next joint of the arm.

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7.2.3 S HOULDER J OINTS : P OWER

The shoulder motors were sized in order to move the arm and a 20lb weight at the endpoint.
This is a total weight of 43 lbs. This creates a maximum torque of 1935 in-lbs (219 Nm), with
an arm length of 45 in. The motor needed to move the arm at a speed of 60 degrees in 2
seconds (10 RPM) at full load. We therefore need 109W of power.
1
P = 218N m .502 = 109W
s

(7.1)

For a load of 5lbs, we want the arm to move significantly faster. In this case, a 108W motor
will move a 5lb load at .76 radians per second.
Rad i ans
109W
Rad i ans
=
= .76
Second
142N m
Second

(7.2)

To create a reasonable factor of safety we specified a motor rated at 184W The Swedish Chef
Robot , the Anaheim Automation BLWRPG235S-24V-4000-R326. It is important to note that
184W is the rated torque of the motor, not the peak torque of the motor. This gives us a significant factor of safety.

Figure 7.7: Example Anaheim Gearmotor

The motor specified also includes a built in planetary gear motor. Therefore we did not need
to design additional reduction. The motor used has a 4000RPM rated speed and a 62.3 Oz-in
rated torque. We chose a 326:1 ratio in the gearbox, and an additional 3:1 belt reduction. This
means that at the torque required to lift the arm (1935 in-lbs, 31.64 oz-in after reduction),
the arm will draw 5.6 amps. Since this is half of the rated torque of the motor, the motor will
be running at least 4000 RPM (Anaheim specifies rated motor speed and torque at the same
point. The rated torque of this motor is 62 oz-in). With a reduction of 978:1, this will produce
a speed of at least .42 radians per second. However, since the motor is at lower than rated
torque, it is likely to be spinning faster than the rated torque and closer to the desired speed.

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Note: Some calculation in this section are slightly lower than the desired numbers. However,
all of these calculations are being done making assumptions based on the limited motor data
provided by Anaheim Automation. They are therefore biased low due to the conservative
numbers given by Anaheim for rated torque and speed.
These numbers are confirmed by a SolidWorks simulation of the final arm assembly. Figure
7.8 shows the results.

Figure 7.8: SolidWorks Simulation of Shoulder Torque

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7.3 E LBOW J OINTS

Figure 7.9: Elbow Joint

The elbow joint is a 1 degree of freedom joint between the upper arm and lower arm. It is
driven with a worm gear so that the motor can be mounted parallel to the upper arm and to
prevent back-driving.
7.3.1 S TRUCTURE
The upper half of the elbow joint houses the transmission and is made from a plug that inserts into the end of the upper arm tube. This plug bolts onto the tube. The motor bolts to
this plug. The transmission is then supported by three brackets that also bolt to the plug.
Their is a U made out of machined aluminum that supports the end of the worm gear away
from the motor. There are also two L brackets with bearings pressed into them that support
the output shaft.
The second arm link is mounted to the first by a fork. The fork is made out of a plug that fits
into the tube and two side plates. The plug is epoxied into the tube of the second link. There
are also steel inserts into the plates. This is so that we did not have a 1/2" key shaft directly
transmitting torque to an aluminum plate. Instead, torque is transmitted to the hub and then
on to the lower arm.
7.3.2 E LBOW T RANSMISSION
The transmission of the elbow is a worm gear. This was used both because of the size of a
reduction we could get in a small space and because we needed to change the axis of rotation
in order to mount the motor parallel to the first link tube. The ratio we chose was 20 to 1

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Figure 7.10: Elbow Transmission

because this fit well in the amount of space that we wanted. Any additional gear reduction
was obtained through an integrated planetary gearbox attached to the motor. The worm gear
is supported on both sides by both ball bearings and thrust bearings in order to support the
thrust load when the worm gear is driven.
The overall ratio of the system is 480:1. This will be discussed further in the power section.
7.3.3 P OWER
The power requirements for this section of the arm are similar to the the power requirements
of the shoulder joint (See section 7.2.3. However, the distance to the load is significantly less
so the torque is substantially lower. The total load of a 20lb weight is 1110 in-Lbs (125 Nm).
This axis should move under load at the same speed as the first axis, .5 rad/s.
P = 125N m .5

1
= 62W
S

(7.3)

We therefore chose the Anaheim Automation BLWRPG173S-24V-4000-R24. This motor is

rated for a power output of 63W (Again, rated power is much less than peak power). We chose
a ratio of 480:1 because the motor will spin at 3000 RPM and output a torque of 37 oz-in (the
required torque before the reduction).
The final SolidWorks torque simulation again confirms this, with slightly lower numbers.

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Figure 7.11: Elbow motor Torque Curve

Figure 7.12: SolidWorks Simulation of Elbow Torque

7.4 W RIST J OINTS

The wrist was the point at the arm that needed the largest number of joints in the least number of space. Several design decisions were made in order to facilitate this. First, the wrist motors are mounted parallel with the arm tube and drive the differential inputs through bevel
gears. Second, the differential has been designed using the smallest reasonable size bevel

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Figure 7.13: Wrist Render

gears for the application. Finally, a brushless quadcopter motor was used for the final joint.
This is a motor that is highly optimized for weight savings and is therefore very power dense.
7.4.1 W RIST S TUCTURE
The base of the wrist structure is very similar to the elbow structure. Their is a turned plug that
inserts into the arm tube and that supports motors. L brackets that support the differential
are also mounted to this plug. All of the connections are bolted because the structure of this
assembly is so closly intertwined with the transmission. Therefore it is desirable that we can
disassemble the system. The differential is similar to the shoulder differential. It is machined
out of a single piece of aluminum.
Again, if we were to continue with development of this system, we would make this out of
several plates to increase machinability and decrease complexity of assembly. The output of
the differential goes to a ladder of aluminum bars. The fianl motor for the 6th axis is mounted
to this ladder. The entire assembly is made out of machined and anodized aluminum.
7.4.2 W RIST T RANSMISSION
The wrist transmission has an overall ratio of 168:1. It is composed of three stages. First, there
is an integrated gearbox attached to the motor. The axis of motion is then turned 90 degrees
through a set of bevel gears. Finally, there is a belt reduction that sends power to a differential.
(See section 7.2.2 for an explanation of the differential).The first set of bevel gears is attached
directly to the motor. The second is attached via a hex to a belt pulley. The bevel gear has a
bearing pressed into it, as does the belt pulley. These two things rotate on a pin that is pressed
into the main structure. This is shown in figure 7.15.Both bevel gears also are supported from
behind by thrust bearings.

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Figure 7.14: Wrist Transmission

Figure 7.15: Wrist Transmission Cutaway

7.4.3 W RIST P OWER

The power for the wrist was determined using similar metrics as those above. However, since
the load is so much closer to the axis of rotation, this axis is designed to go significantly faster
than the other two joints. It is lifting 20 lbs at a distance of 8 inches, so the motors need a
minimum of 160 in-Lbs (18 Nm) of torque. We want to run this axis at 2 radians per second.

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1
(7.4)
P = 18N m 2 = 36W
s
The first two axes also use Anaheim Automation brushless DC motors. These ones use the
same motor as the elbow, but with a 56:1 built in gearbox. This gives us a total reduction
of 168:1. Referencing the power curve in 7.11, the motor will be running at 4000 RPM at a
torque of 18Nm. With this reduction and at this torque the axis will move at 2.5 radians per
second. This both gives us the needed speed and some flexibility to throttle the motors down
and speed them up if necessary.
The third axis uses a completely different motor. This axis needs to be capable of both precise
positioning and high speed in order to run a mixing attachment. Therefore, we are using an
un-geared brushless gimbal motor. This motor is capable of both stabilizing a camera as
large as a RedOne 4K cinema camera and of lifting 8kg. It has a power of 900W, giving it
both the slow speed torque to handle stabilizing a large weight and the speed to run a mixing
attachment.

Figure 7.16: Third Wrist Axis Motor

8 T OOLS G ABY
8.1 O VERVIEW
The Fudbot relies on six unique custom tools to do all of its food prep work: a large chopping
knife, a silicone spatula, a scraper, a whisk/mixer, a pot hook and a stabilizer. There are two

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