Machine Tending Arm
Automated engraving with a CNC mill and Kinova arm, using C++, ROS2, and MoveIt2
February 2025 - May 2025
As a personal project and for developing an autonomous manufacturing module for a new iteration of Olin’s Design for Manufacturing class, my friend Will Young and I integrated a machine tending system for engraving the Olin logo on a piece of stock. My work involved controlling a Kinova Gen3 arm with 7 degrees of freedom to pick and place the stock. I made use of C++, ROS2, and MoveIt2 (A ROS2 manipulation library), to control the arm. I set up the communication between the arm and control panel to control the CNC mill using two other ROS2 nodes for the arm to talk to a microcontroller and a set of relays. To see the arm in action and for more details on the implementation and integration of the system see our website below!