Hello everyone. I've had a number of questions on what the next developments will be and what I'm working on. In the background I have been tinkering with some mechanical designs for low cost gear box solution for a future robot that is larger in size but right now I'm just in the idea phase and a new larger robot design is quite a way out - probably another year or two at least. My primary focus right now is continued development of the AR2 software. Today I pushed a minor update to the AR2 software to fix a kinematic issue involving the DHa3 parameter (for people using the software on custom robots). This wont affect the AR2 as it doesn't use the DHa3 offset. I'm also working on the next software updates to improve the jogging functionality and improve the movement speed. I'm also reviewing potential methods of making the AR2 robot closed loop - but without modifying the design or the motors being used - I want to make sure all developments are easily backward compatible for everyone that has built the AR2 robot, and that any developments keep the robot at a bare minimum of cost. Building the lowest cost robot possible has been the driving focus of this project. I'm also very interested in developing the ability to have the AR2 execute G code and Id like change the vision tab to include an incorporated vision program rather than use external vision programs. I'm studying Open CV and building my own vision program which I think will be a lot of fun. I've had questions asking if the development of the AR2 software will ever be at a final release or if development on it will stop, and the answer to that is NO. My goal is to have only one software platform that is always being developed and improved. If and when an additional robot design comes out a couple years down the road the software will be the same for any design, there would just be a different set of DH parameters loaded or perhaps a checkbox to select robot parameters. I'll keep everyone posted on whats next. Stay tuned and hopefully I will have the next AR2 improvement update ready in a few months.
Chris