Robot arm with Nema23 and DynamixelPRO+

Support DYNAMIXEL
1

Hello to everyone.

I am interested in building a manipulator using the DYNAMIXEL PRO+ actuator modules that were recently bought from my Research Laboratory. The max continuous torque of the PRO+ is about 45Nm which doesn’t oblige to my manipulator’s specifications. I want to design a new Joint1 module using a Nema23 Closed Loop Control Motor controlled with Arduino in order to deal with the higher torques. From the rest of the joints PRO+ are perfect.

I am currently considering my options, so I would be grateful if someone more experienced could help me out.

I have considered some problems that should arise, so I would like your help.

  1. Communication via PRO+ is achieved through RS485 standard. Should my stepper also communicate under the same standard?

  2. PRO+ are accompanied with libraries and SDK provided by ROBOTIS. How should I access the Joint1 motor in order the necessary cooperation between joint motors is achieved? Is it possible? Can it be achieved via custom made ROS package? Is there an existing solution that anyone has developed and used?

Please, If anyone has knowledge on the subject to consult me.

Thanks in advance

2

Hi,

I don’t have any experience with Nema23 stepper motor so please take my word with a grain of salt.

You’ll need a separate controller for the stepper motor and if you want to use RS-485 channel along with DYNAMIXEL PRO+, you’ll need to make sure that they are all in same voltage level and baudrate as well as some settings such as stop & parity bits.

However, it is difficult to guarantee that which RS-485 will be fully compatible to DYNAMIXEL as we do not have such data for 3rd party products.

If you are using DYNAMIXEL SDK, you may need to modify the source code in order to control the Arduino board.

Thank you.