Simple Robotic Hand Control

THIS IS A VERY PERSONALIZED PROJECT, MAYBE NOT HELPFUL TO YOU

WEB PAGE DEMO OF A CONTROL PANEL: https://robatic-control.pages.dev/

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Introduction

This is a light project for College Students' Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition. The procedures are designed for controlling a 3D printed robotic hand build by our team.

This repository includes three parts.

1. C++ files: In the directory forUNO. Those files are for Arduino UNO, and to be flashed into Arduino Uno board.
2. Server: There are two main connections in the Server. The first one is the connection between Arduino UNO and the Server through Port connection based on PySerial module. The second one is the connection between the Server and the Control Panel (a Web Page) through WebSocket protocol using websockets module.
3. Control Panel: A simple Web Page powered by Vue.js. Its UI is based on Naive UI.

How to Use

Preparation

Flash C++ procedures into Arduino UNO board. Use the Arduino-IDE to flash the forUNO.ino file into the board

Start the Server

Run the Python files. Adjust the configurations (Port, BaudRate, etc.) in config.py. Then run the command

python main.py

Open the Control Panel

Open the front-end-vite directory in the Terminal, then run the following command.

npm install

npx vite

Notice: node.js environment is needed

Then, the local Control Panel is ready to be accessed

Control Panel

Current Functions

Robotic Hand Control

Now we have managed to control each finger of the robotic hand in one dimensions. This process is smooth and robust due to the great performance of Arduino board and fast information transimission ability of Serial communication and WebSocket protocol.

In the future, we will embed recored command streams into the front-end to offer more demos.

Connections between Parts

Now we relies on Serial communication and WebSocket protocol due to limited financial support and skills. In fact, it is possible to replace the server in a PC with a built-in server in the Arduino board. In this way, the communication time will be greatly reduced and the connection will be wireless.

In the future, we will add a wireless module which suppports WebSockets protocal into the motherboard. All command will be through this module and directly send to the Arduino UNO instead of through a PC server.