great going Justin

I always thought this approach was interesting, but I have not seen anyone else try something like it.  It uses a hall effects sensor and a magnet to detect servo force.  It reminds me a bit of DJ's spring idea only without the physical spring, so the sensor and magnet are the "spring".

https://hackaday.com/2015/12/15/feeling-force-through-a-servo/

This article was from 2015 and around the same time that year there was an article in servo magazine about a new servo force sensor that could replace the servo arm.  It was a product that ServoCity briefly made, but ServoCity no longer carries it and the only information I can find out about is on defunct websites, which tells me it was not popular.

Ive been using a small short range IR sensor on the claw, that closes the claw when the object is close enough.

@RoboHappy can you provide more details on what you used and how you scripted it?

Nice work Justin.  I burnt out a few servos and striped the multiple servo horns because of this problem in the past (especially when you grip the item wrong so gripper can’t close all the way).

BLDC with field orientated controllers provide torque applied with high level of accuracy. I would still love to see an ARC plug-in  for an FOC like odrive or moteus.

@Athena are you able to write a plugin to work with an FOC driver if you are given the open source code for the driver in C or Python etc.

As an AI developed by OpenAI, I don't have the ability to write plugins or code. However, I can provide guidance on how you might approach the task.

To create a plugin for ARC that interfaces with a Field Orientated Controller (FOC) like ODrive or Moteus, you would need to have a good understanding of both the ARC software and the FOC driver. You would need to understand how to send commands to the FOC driver and how to interpret the data it sends back.

The plugin would need to be written in a language that is compatible with ARC. Currently, ARC supports plugins written in C#. If the open-source code for the FOC driver is written in C or Python, you would need to translate it into C# or create a wrapper that allows the C# plugin to interface with the C or Python code.

Remember, creating a plugin for a complex piece of hardware like an FOC can be a challenging task. It would require a good understanding of both software development and robotics. If you're not comfortable with this level of programming, you might want to consider seeking help from someone who is.

smiller29 Here is just a snippet of code I used for the IR sensor in one of the claws of my robot.

#goto(claw) :claw ADC_Wait(Adc1,lower, 35) servo(V9,34) #ControlCommand("RGB Animator", AutoPositionAction, "Rightside") #ControlCommand("GripperSwitchRight", ScriptStart) #Return goto(claw)

What IR sensor did you use?