This week I worked on assembling the gantry and made some progress on the web client interface. The user can now interact with the web client interface by moving pieces with the mouse.
I have mostly put together the main components of the gantry system. The picture below shows the stepper motors and timing belt attached to the gantry. The opening closest to the excess timing belt is where the gripper will be attached and the timing belt will be held taught here. The timing belt is fed through the blue clamshell housing, and this housing is what facilitates the x-y movement of the gripper.
This week I will work on finishing the gripper prototyping and testing it out with chess pieces. I will also work on sending GET and POST requests between the web application and Raspberry Pi. I ran into some issues with the initial 4 bar linkage gripper design, so Juan and I worked together to design a new mechanism that will use guide rails and a stepper motor to facilitate z-movement of the gripper. The gripper will be attached to an acrylic plate that will be moved up and down using a stepper motor and some nylon cord and will be guided by the guide rails. A microserver will control the opening/closing of the gripper.