GETTING TO GRIPS WITH A ROBOT ARM: THE RHINO XR-1

Date
1982-10-01
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Abstract
Most computer hobbyists know that their computers are usually harmless enough. But things are changing now with the appearance on the market of a growing number of small robot arm manipulators, targetted at home hobbyists and basement workshops. One of the first is the Rhino XR-1 from Sandhu Machine Design. We have used one for several months and would like to share with readers our experiences and provide some practical handy tips. The design philosophy behind the XR-1 has been ably described by Sandhu (1982), its inventor. He covers some trade-offs implicit in the design and describes various problems which had to be overcome during its creation. The XR-1 manual (which can be obtained separately from the arm itself) gives an excellent introduction to the operation and programming of the arm. To complement this documentation we provide here an independent review of how we have found the XR-1 to perform in practice, and discuss some of the unexpected problems that were encountered and how we solved them. It is worth saying at the outset, however, that we have been more than satisfied with the device and regard Sandhu's engineering as a fine piece of work.
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Computer Science
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