Overview
Hope has pursued several programming projects that involve the credit card size computer, Raspberry Pi, and coding language, Python. One example is this past year Hope assisted a biomedical student with his capstone project by providing a visual aid. Using a 3D printed robotic hand and servo motors Hope was able to program the prototype to move via keystroke commands.
How Does It Work?
The hand itself was 3D printed on a MarkForge and spraypainted silver. The image to the right is the digital model. Hope fed clear fishing wire through the fingers down into the hand in order to create a human-like a hand movement. After that, Hope designed a spool that could fit on the servo motor axle. The fishing wire in the hand was then tired around the axle. One problem Hope ran into when testing was the fingers not falling back into a resting position. So, she attached cut hair bands to the back of the fingers to work as the “muscles” of the hand pulling them back as the string loosened.
Coding
Hope used python to program the servo motor movement. She used keystroke commands that way, during the presentation it would be a smooth transition for the biomedical student to demonstrate the hand.
Finished Product
After extensive testing, Hope designed a motor box and arm to attach to the hand. Once the prototype was finished Hope used a Raspberry Pi computer and Python to program the servo motors to open and close the hand with keystroke commands.