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IEEE Bionic Arm

IEEE Bionic Arm

A 6-DOF bionic arm developed through rapid mechanical, electrical, and embedded iteration. As mechatronics team lead, I guided design and fabrication while programming responsive ESP32 control firmware.

Role

Mechatronics Engineering Team Lead

Date

January 2025

Team

Multidisciplinary student engineering team

30% Faster

Prototype Iteration Time

Mechatronics Integration

Core Domain

Multi-DOF Bionic Arm

System Type

C++ESP-32Autodesk InventorAutoCAD Electrical3D PrintingServo Actuation

Overview

A 6-DOF bionic arm developed through rapid mechanical, electrical, and embedded iteration. As mechatronics team lead, I guided design, fabrication, and revisions while programming the ESP32 control system.

Problem

The team needed a responsive, maintainable arm that could be prototyped quickly and integrated across mechanical, electrical, and embedded disciplines.

Objectives

  • Reduce the time required to test mechanical revisions
  • Schedule responsive ESP32 control tasks deterministically
  • Document wiring and maintenance clearly
  • Improve gripper torque transfer while reducing mass

System Architecture

An ESP32 coordinates timer-scheduled control tasks and servo actuation. The embedded system connects to a mechanically iterated 6-DOF arm and a lightweight geared gripper, supported by documented electrical wiring.

bionicarm architecture diagram
Bionic arm control architecture — finite-state machine

Hardware

  • ESP32
  • servos and actuation hardware
  • 3D-printed structural and gripper components

Software

  • C++
  • deterministic timer-based scheduling

Algorithms / Processing

  • scheduled real-time control tasks
  • servo actuation and gripper control

Key Decisions and Tradeoffs

  • Used rapid 3D-printed prototypes to validate concepts before final fabrication
  • Redesigned the gripper around servos, fasteners, and printed gears to improve torque transfer while reducing mass
  • Created AutoCAD Electrical drawings to make wiring and maintenance clearer

Biggest Challenge

The central challenge was coordinating rapid mechanical revisions with responsive embedded control. Short prototype loops and clearer electrical documentation helped the team validate changes earlier and integrate them more reliably.

Validation and Testing

  • rapid testing with 3D-printed prototypes
  • servo and gripper checks
  • embedded responsiveness testing
  • mechanical-electrical integration checks

Impact

The team reduced prototype iteration time by 30%, while timer-based ESP32 scheduling improved system responsiveness by 15%.

Next Improvements

  • Add more robust input-processing and motion-smoothing detail
  • Improve validation pipelines
  • Deepen actuation integration
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