Model

I have designed and built my model at a scale of 1:2. The main arms and top supporting block is made of plywood. The bottom base is made from a piece of PVC tubing, similar to the final design. The hydraulic arm is slighlty larger than the 1:2 scale but was the smallest available. This causes the slight kink of the tubing seen in the pictures. The tubing is standard aquarium airline tubing rated to a pressure of about 20 psi. The black grips shown are modeled using balsa wood but will be made of rubber in the final design. The model is also functional and is capable of holding large amounts of weight. The only noticable problem is picking up very thin items, as the model arm does not close completely.

Figure 1: Overall view

Figure 2: Arm fully closed

Figure 3: Arm half open

Figure 4: Arm fully open

Figure 5: Rear view

Figure 6: Overall view