A prototype is a preliminary model of something. Projects that offer physical products need to show backers documentation of a working prototype. This gallery features photos, videos, and other visual documentation that will give backers a sense of what’s been accomplished so far and what’s left to do. Though the development process can vary for each project, these are the stages we typically see:

Dexter on the way to Google

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Dexter Draws HD Name

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Overview

Our goal is to empower people to build what they want when they need it. We believe this can be done by creating an automation technology sharing community that owns all of the necessary building blocks to realize a complete personal micro-factory. To this end we have created an efficient, precise, brilliant, sensitive, extensible, buildable, and programmable 5+ axes motion platform (a robot arm we affectionately call Dexter). We have shared all of the source code and manufacturing data under the most permissible open source license (GPL3). What we are trying to do with this Kickstarter project is to find the first tier of collaborators. If you have a passion for robotics and automation, making and tinkering, 3D printing and programming, or you just want to build your own home business building robots, join us.

Who we are

We are a collection of like minded individuals with lots of experience building technology products and bringing them to market. Kent Gilson is a serial entrepreneur and inventor extraordinaire with 30+ years developing deep technology products including FPGA supercomputers and hardware programming languages. Christopher Fry has been a​​​​t MIT for decades, most recently a research scientist at the ​media lab​.​​ He has created many computer languages and development environments. He has a passion for teaching and believes in maker-centric economies as a sustainable model for human flourishing. Hampden Kuhns, a Carnegie Mellon engineering PhD and serial entrepreneur. Todd Enerson is a published scientist with a Biochemistry degree from University of Wisconsin-Madison, 20 plus years in science, sales and marketing. Richard Fu, Investment banking background, renewable energy focus, bridging Wall Street capital with the sharing economy. Gary Kochis is a 30 year technology veteran, a multi talented hardware, software, and applied mathematics engineer and an experienced entrepreneur. James Wigglesworth is a Mechanical Engineering grad student with a background in robotic arm kinematics. His undergrad and grad research involved using robotic arms to print PCBs and antennas on complex curved surfaces.

What we have done

We have spent the last 5 years (and our collective fortunes) building nearly a dozen prototypes to arrive at what we think is the necessary combination of capabilities to enable a revolution in personal automation and human to machine/human to human (haptic) collaboration (resistance is futile). Lets break it down.

5+ Axes motion platform (but don't you need 6?)

We get this question a lot. The answer is: it depends on what you want to do. Three axes are enough if you want to do things on a horizontal plane like conventional 3D printing, laser cutting and pallet moving. Add a fourth and you have movement and positioning on many planes. Or, use the forth as a filament extruder and you have a 3D printer (more like a 2.5-D printer). Add a fifth axis and now you get any 3D position with the end pointing in any direction. This can be used to draw/drill/laser/poke on any complex geometry. Or, use the fourth axis to keep parallel to a plane and use the fifth to rotate. Now you have a traditional planar pick-and-place motion system. In reality there are uses for robots with many more axes than 6, think grippers and whole hands as end effectors. We stopped at 5 and added expansion capability in the form of a sixth motor controller and position sensor that is useful for extruders, vacuum generation, a sixth axis etc. and an Arduino embedded in the tool head that can be used to drive multiple servos, sensors of all kinds and... You get the idea. Also, the motion platform is scalable. Build it big or build it small, change a few length parameters and our software will just work.

Six channel motor controller

Dexter CAD data from OnShape

Efficient

By using a FPGA supercomputer to solve the precision control problem, we were able to optimize the physical and electrical architecture of the robot to minimize the mass and therefore the power requirements. All 5 of the stepper motors are placed at strategic locations to lower the center of mass and to statically balance the arm. This way almost all of the torque of the motors is used to move the payload not the robot. Also, we generate all of the voltages needed for the robot from a single supply that can range from as little as 7 volts all the way to 60 volts.

Efficient: At 20 watts, all the power you need to run 24/7 comes from the sun.

Precise

One of the breakthroughs we achieved is the ability to very accurately measure the deflection of each axis and do it quickly enough to use this information to control all of the motors simultaneously. We have measured a 50 micron repeatability (worst case scenario) on a robot that is built with 3D printed parts.

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Brilliant

All of this precision and sensitivity could not be done without the computational capabilities of the FPGA supercomputer and an efficient and productive FPGA hardware programming language. We are using an FPGA that has the capacity to perform hundreds of billions of signal processing calculations per second--that's like having thousands of Arduino's. The FPGA brain also has 2 ARM-9 processors running a full Ubuntu Linux OS. You can think of Dexter as a personal computer with a massively parallel real-time sensory cortex that can move and interact with its surroundings.

MicroZed FPGA board

Code disk position calculator

Sensitive

Dexter has a sense of touch that rivals humans. In fact, Dexter's ability to measure the position of each axis is far more sensitive than the robot's motors are able to move. This extra measurement quality combined with algorithms to calculate force over time result in a force sensitivity that can be used for many applications. This force information can be shared between two Dexters to transmit forces over distance and scale--think haptic faxing--or it can be used to simulate computer generated physical environment--haptic video game controllers--or it can be used to sense the amount of force Dexter is applying to a work piece and adjust it to apply just the right amount. This force sensitivity is also used to make it simple to capture position information. By moving the robot to zero out the forces it feels, Dexter essentially follows the movement of its human operator.

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Buildable

Dexter was designed to be manufactured using 3D printed parts from a low cost hobby printer and to minimize the number of specialty parts needed to complete the build while still maintaining structural integrity.

Dremel 3D printer and Dexter's parts that were printed on it

The trick to using a low-cost 3D printed part as a robust production part is to reinforce the Z dimension with standard carbon fiber extrusions, cut to size, and steel--we use finish nails.

3D printed External Gear.

X-Ray of External Gear showing the reinforcement from carbon fiber and steel

Skeleton of the external gear showing just the bones.

One of the reasons for making the parts using 3D printing is to make them reproducible by the robot. With the addition of an extruder end effector (in development), Dexter will be able to fabricate and assemble a majority of the subsystems needed to construct a second Dexter.

Extensible

A strong, precise robot needs tools to make things. And it needs to be able to change tools in the middle of a job. This is why we have given Dexter an interface that combines a two part tool changer with spring loaded connectors for signaling and power. The ability to perform different processing steps during the same "job" enables what we call heterogeneous direct digital manufacturing (HDDM). With one piece of equipment you can automatically change tools and use additive, subtractive, and assembly processes.

Tool changer interface

Pen tool attached

Programmable

Building complexity into hardware is expensive. That's why we push as much complexity as possible into software. Our Dexter Development Environment runs on your PC (Windows, Mac or Linux). It provides a Development Environment for creating "Jobs" for making things. DDE can control many different types of materials, end effectors and processes because it is based on a general purpose programming language, JavaScript (the primary programming language of the web). We augment JavaScript with high level classes and methods for describing jobs that automate a number of different processes to make things. Our automatic tool changer enables switching of end effectors on the robot arm to allow complex builds without human intervention. But sometimes human intervention is necessary. Our Job language contains instructions for humans too, so that a process can be defined with discrete human instructions embedded in the process DDE can also synchronize multiple Dexter's should they be needed for especially complex builds.

Is all this hard to learn? Usually. But we've compressed decades of programming language and Development Environment design to make DDE as simple as possible (but no simpler!). The documentation is included in the environment, along with "click help" on every character in our text editor. We have about a hundred examples of code snippets to get you on the right track and speed both learning and implementation. Watch our DDE video to see exactly how.

We have shipped our first kits and robots and now need you! Creating a community that shares will allow for further development. With your support we can take Dexter to the next level, provide the education and have a secure portal for sharing.

Haddington Dynamics has been seen in these publications

What you get

Fully Assembled DexterArm

Dexter ships without skin. We have prototyped several different skins (printed and vacuum form)

This fully assembled Dexter is ready to go out of the box. It connects to your PC via ethernet and is fully programmable with our open source development environment, DDE. It comes with an automatic tool changer interface, ready to accept any new tools that we develop, are developed by the community, or that you can come up with yourself. These tools will allow you to do so much more than just a 3D printer. DDE has extensive built-in help but we will be putting out tutorials to make your experience as smooth as possible. Dexter has all the capabilities of conventional robotic arms like moving in Cartesian without the price tag (seriously look up the cost of industrial robotic arms). Plus it has capabilities that a lot of those arms don't have. Such as computing power, precision, and force sensing capabilities.

Dexter Kit with Printed Parts

The kit includes:

Main FPGA board, 5 optical interface boards, and 1 motor controller board

5 Stepper motors

3 Harmonic gears

All Carbon fiber components

All 3D printed parts

Wiring harness

30 watt Power supply

Assembly Components

NERD STUFF

Specs:

Weight: 6.5 Kg

6.5 Kg Power: 20 Watts (7-60 volts; Battery, Solar or Wall)

20 Watts (7-60 volts; Battery, Solar or Wall) Arm Length: 670 mm

670 mm Build Envelope: 1m Spherical Build Envelope

1m Spherical Build Envelope Payload: 1 Kg

1 Kg Connectivity: WiFi, USB and 10bit GPIO

WiFi, USB and 10bit GPIO Repeatability: 50 microns

50 microns Stepping: 5 microns

5 microns DOF: 5 +

5 + Base Rotation (L0): Infinite

Infinite Pivot Joint (L2): 360 degree

360 degree End Joint (L3): 300 degree

300 degree Angle Joint (L4): 270 degree

270 degree Rotate Joint (L5): 360 degree

360 degree Speed: 70 degrees per second

70 degrees per second Control Software: Dexter Development Environment (DDE) and Linux Command Line (embedded UBUNTU)

Dexter Development Environment (DDE) and Linux Command Line (embedded UBUNTU) FPGA Code: Open Source

Open Source Other Features: Ubuntu Linux on Robot

Bonus video: digitally hard