WARNING

This is still a WIP website...
(TODO: add the various team pages so they can write more, NOT on this page)

What is the "The Army" project?

The Army is a school project born out of the HoPE (Hands on Physics Experience) initiative, proposed by our school in collaboration with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). The goal of the project is to develop a mechanical arm that can be remotely controlled over long distances via an internet connection.

Planning

After brainstorming basic ideas, we decided to adapt an old school project, which consisted of a simple motorized gripper, into something much more functional: a complete arm, including an elbow, entirely based on Arduino and its ecosystem. The addition of Arduino Cloud allows communication between the controls and the arm, even across entire continents, and also Smart Home integrations like Alexa or Google Home.

Our six-person team divided the main tasks in:

• Communication
• 3D Modeling
• Assembly
• Programming

In every parts of the project the different teams interacted and some of them even helped the other by just for example even optimizing their codes.

Gathering Resources for the Initial Sketch

The 3D modeling team immediately began searching for a base model to work from, finding it at https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2269115. Meanwhile, the communication team researched how to use Arduino Cloud and collaborated with the programming team to transmit initial inputs through Arduino Cloud. This enabled the physical movement of servo motors provided by school funds.

Developing the First Prototype

Using the school's 3D printer, the modeling team completed the printing of all essential parts, enabling the assembly team to begin their work. Compared to the original model, some parts were refined and modified using Blender. Notably, the last 3D-printed parts were combined to improve grip strength.
The communication and programming teams wrote the necessary code for data transmission between two Arduinos connected via Arduino Cloud. They also implemented the code required to input passwords, allowing the Arduinos to connect to Wi-Fi.

First Tests

Besides all the test ran by the project here the communication and programming teams, during a school celebration event, were able to run the first tests and show it off to their professors, and it actually started working (NOTE: The repository will stay private temp for now)!
The tests were simple: since at the time we didn't have long cables or breadboards we could move only one finger per time.. and the index finger worked! Across the room the two teams started moving the finger through a potentiometer.

Next steps

We'll try to separate one of the 3 fingers that were merged together, finalize the glove that should move the arm and finish this documentation website.

Detailed STEP by STEP workflow of the group project "The Arm-y"

An exciting start: --------------------------- Edward Moriarty's Meeting

On our first day at the Hope afternoon meeting (23/10/2024), we were greeted by Ed and a team of Italian tutors who helped us get everything started and decide which projects were worth the effort. After setting up our initial groups (based on everyone’s preferences), Ed himself, and sometimes even other people from the MIT Institute, started talking to each group on different occasions (both in person and via calls) to share his experience and thoughts on what he believed was the correct course of action for the things we wanted to make. They would often provide us with extremely valuable information to pursue something that was actually feasible with our resources—essentially making sure we wouldn’t waste any time or money.

The First Ideas -------------- Brainstorm Phase

The first thing we did was organise exactly what we needed to figure out and in what order. Since our final objective was to create a robotic 3D-printed arm that could be controlled wirelessly, we immediately began searching for a suitable 3D model of the arm and also started learning the basics of Arduino, as not everyone was already an expert in this regard. After that, we: · Set up a GitHub repository for everyone to collaborate more efficiently. · Conducted numerous tests on the connection side of things (all of which are available on GitHub!) and, around the Christmas period, decided to use Arduino Cloud for the connections between boards. · Printed all the necessary 3D parts with standard PLA filament and adjusted some of them to our needs using Blender (such as connecting the three fingers together for a stronger grip, an idea that originated from Ed). · Assembled the parts and installed our first servo-motors (the actual moving parts behind the fingers). · Programmed the base to make the servo-motors respond to manual input. · Searched for a way to integrate Arduino with brainwaves (since we initially wanted to translate those waves into movements).

The Intermediate Work Phase

With the project's foundations now in place, we felt ready to take a step forward and purchase the necessary sensor to use brainwaves within the Arduino environment. The problem was, aside from being terribly expensive, this sensor had practically no documentation and had received many negative reviews for its fragility. However, it was still the only remotely usable option for the project... but with limited resources and with us not being able to risk spending all that money on a crucial component of dubious quality, we consulted with each other to decide whether to change direction and opt for a simpler control system that could be created in less time or not. We settled to use a glove filled with flex sensors connected to an Arduino board, which would send all inputs to the cloud, set up to be dynamically used by the robotic arm to move all its parts. To test the new method, we programmed the second board, identified as "glove", and initially connected just one flex sensor to check if it worked properly. From this test, it quickly became apparent that our flex sensors were deteriorating too easily and giving inaccurate readings, resulting in movements of the arm that were misaligned with the actual movement. Knowing this, we had two options:

1. Search for significantly higher-quality flex sensors, which would increase the total cost of the project.
2. Change the method of movement measuring with something else. Meanwhile, thanks to our personal 3D printer (the school’s one had unfortunately broken), we completed and assembled all the parts of the arm, including the internal servo-motors, the joint for a potential shoulder, the three joined fingers, internal wires, the external casing, and the internal board responsible for controlling all the servo and mini servo-motors. Apart from a few other modifications we still needed to make later on an aesthetic level, the arm itself was considered practically finished since we had already completed all the programming. Now, we had to start thinking again about how we wanted the user to control its movement. By the end of January (2025), Ed’s team returned to assist all the groups at the institute. Taking advantage of this opportunity, we asked the experts for a more efficient way to obtain numerical values from the glove’s movement (thus discarding the flex sensors). In response, Ed redirected us to the YouTube channel of Lucas Pope, a genius who had managed to create very cheap virtual reality gloves. By researching his project and, most importantly, observing the design of his gloves, we realised that all we needed were simple potentiometers and some wires. We took the potentiometers, attached them to the glove and its board, and finally completed the control system. All that was left was to test everything thoroughly and refine the final product, at least for the robotic arm itself. Naturally, we also needed to finish the wiki website hosted on github.

Testing Phase and Finalisation

Once we had a fully functional arm and the first prototype of the glove with the potentiometers, we tried to move the first finger completely wirelessly. In front of our professors and friends, who were anxiously waiting to see this promised remote-controlled arm, we managed to move the ring finger in real-time without any issues or significant delays. We had achieved our goal! From that moment on, we dedicated all our subsequent meetings to perfecting and adding extra features, such as the mobile app to control the arm via Bluetooth (still in development), or improving the design of our project's wiki website. We will do our best to improve our product as much as possible, starting with getting the entire hand to move smoothly! And maybe we’ll even think about making the design a bit more appealing, since right now it looks more like a Frankenstein creation made of hot glue, plastic, rope, and circuits. But that’s another story that we will fix later.