Thanks Chris's great AR3 project, most of us have working and look fancy robot arm. However, I notice there is a lot of room to improve. Since AR2/3 builder a lot, I'm suggest building AR4 which can remain low cost but have more simplified/direct/tough design, and more 'industry grade'. Base on observation in this forum, I propose some of the enhancement (include my wish list):
Use non-contact limit switch to avoid robot arm fall and damage the limit switch
remove too much wiring, use CAN bus (or etc) to reduce wire into minimal (come with encoder)
more flexible robot training method (like hand hold)
Better emergency stop (currently emergency stop will stop power supply and collapse arm position, that look danger and will hurt the arm)
natively support ROS/MOVEIT
tough design, can support >=2kg (in my opinion if possible change the j5 belt to others mechanism)
more fancy and user friendly software design, now program the arm really less user friendly
more up to date computer vision function
Look/Feel compatible to all Mac/Win/Linux
More error feed back/sound feed back
Easier to integrate more sensor/buttons/switches
I'm not good in design hardware and 3D drawing, but I can help a lot in programming.
I'll check that out. Im still using Solid works at the moment mostly because that's what most of the universities are using and have asked for. I do include the step files with the models so hopefully that helps some but I agree SW is a bit spendy.