The Robot Farmer - Annin Robotics builds AR4 small robot arm in Emmett, Idaho

We traveled to Emmett Idaho to visit Chris with Annin Robotics
and to see what he has been building. His project - a small robotic arm
that can be used for automating a multitude of different applications. Schools have been using the AR robot for training & educational purposes. It's a great tool for engineers who want to automate specific tasks. His current version of the homemade robot arm is the AR4. The previous versions of his homemade robot arms were the AR2 & the AR3
Emmett Idaho is a small agricultural town located in the Treasure Valley.
The population as it stands now is approximately 7,000 people
Its about 15 miles from Star Idaho and about 30 miles from Boise Idaho
Emmett or Emmettville as it was once called is surrounded by the foothills.
In the early 1900s fruit packers adopted the label of "Gem of Plenty" because of the fertility of this valley. During the mining era the valley was known as the "garden" for the mining regions.
In the small town of Emmett you will find farmers, but you will also find farmers who build robots.
If you want to support Chris and learn more about his robot. Go to Anninrobotics.com.
If you liked this story and would like to see more just like this, future episodes will be at Build.Video
Get in contact with us. We want to know what your building! Chess Robot
#automation #robotics #engineering #robots #robotics #therobotfarmer #robotfarmer

[@dominictruter5473]

Chris is a Legend!

[@dts_user1389]

Thanks for making a video with Chris. Bought an AR4 MK2. Finishing up the wiring right now. Go Chris!!!

[@BuildersFilmStudio]

Absolutely. When did you buy it?

[@dts_user1389]

​@@BuildersFilmStudio Early march. It was the AR4 MK2. Chris has since came out with the MK3 version. Ah, I just missed it! Hoping to use mine to learn vision recognition and advanced path planning. I work for turbine repair and we do a lot of thermal spray. I think thermal spray might be one of the hardest path planning tasks for all industrial robot arm applications (Compared to pick and place, machining, painting). Without getting into the nitty-gritty, the speeds, angles, accelerations, and overlaps of the toolpaths all matter a LOT. At least in machining, you can afford to slow down your tool or have overlapping toolpaths. Basically, it was making me loose my mind, and I bout the AR4 to try and prototype a programming tool for the thermal spray industry. 😅

[@Mattequation]

Congrats Chris!!!!, what an awesome story and video.

[@anninrobotics]

Thank you

[@faisalalbader8385]

Annin robotics to space and beyond! 🥳

[@BattleForEden]

Ive been following his channel for years and had no idea he was a farmer

[@Miniscapes515]

I am currently building the ar4. I hav3 zero experience in coding and anything this level. But I always thought industrial robotic arms where very cool and always wanted one. Now I can. And this project has taught me so much. Thanks

[@BuildersFilmStudio]

Awesome, did you recently get the AR4 from Chris?

[@Pardeepangaria]

This is great .... Thank you Chris for everything you have done for the community

[@diyhub6982]

Он ГЕНИЙ! Я в восторге от его идей и помощи людям желающим развиваться и иметь такого робота.

[@mrechbreger]

Thank you Chris, you're one of those awesome kind of teachers out there.

[@AleJacko]

Thanks Chris!!!

[@harindugamlath]

Chris is an absolute legend. Hope I had a way to support him and his work. But definitely building the AR4.

[@whitneydesignlabs8738]

Nice documentary. I am using Chris's AR4 robotic software to run a different build of robot arm. His open source software makes it very adaptable. Way to go Chris. I didn't know that Chris also shared my interest in growing plants and chickens and those activities, too. A field robot, removing weeds, would be an awesome evolution of the AR4.

[@unknown_1337]

This is great! I've following Chris' work for some time now. Chris is an absolute legend! Thank you for making this! 🙏

[@LeadDennis]

Please make more videos of the ar series of robots.

[@SantaDragon]

Chris is awesome. I love in special that he share his design, so that I can use it for my hobby, as I am not that good in programming and electronics. Would be great if the development of the students and the university would flow back to the source of the robot, so that both can grow from each other.

[@mrechbreger]

I wonder if those belts can stand the temperature in space.

[@terryterry1655]

wats the difference between AR2,3 & 4?

[@anninrobotics]

The AR2 was the initial release that was open loop. The AR3 added the CUI capacitive encoders / closed loop with some additional software updates. The AR4 is the latest using Stepperonline factory encoders, as well as more software updates including adding vision functionality.

[@sse8033]

Hello Chris. I love your robot and I want to have one. Can I buy it from you and How much?

[@zyxwvutsrqponmlkh]

3:47 Bull fing scat. I bought a big a$$ 1000lbs fanuc industrial robot for $250, these things are so cheap people are throwing them away. You can literally get them free for the asking (or at least for scrap metal price) if you try hard enough, or you can buy one, working with a controller box for like $5k from ebay any day of the week even on a Thursday. You want to do something because it would be cool mad kudos for that, but don't get on here and try to gas light us into believing you when you try to say you could afford to build an industrial sized robot but couldn't afford to buy a used one.

[@conorstewart2214]

Just because it is possible to get a working robot with controller for $5k like you said doesn’t mean it is the same as what he is on about. Chances are it is older without as many features and designed for specific tasks not what he is trying to do. Also not everyone has the space or facilities to mount a heavy and large robot that will then also be a pain to move around. What the AR4 is going for is to be a relatively small and portable robot arm with precise control and can be combined with machine vision, it is not the same as a basic large robot arm and controller that just repeats the same motions continuously. Even if you get a machine for cheap then how expensive is it going to be to replace parts on it? You might have to go back to the original manufacturer which will be relatively expensive.

[@zyxwvutsrqponmlkh]

@@conorstewart2214 Motors only come in so many flavors. Replacing the servo drivers for industrial robots is commonplace in the aftermarket world. Trust me you don't want to deal with FANUC directly, they charge $300 for 100 pages of service documents. But it's easy to reverse engineer the control systems. You're just reading encoders and driving servos. And these six (or seven) axis robot arms are hyper genralistic. You may find some more suited for a welder type payload or another that tote around 100kg. I've only dealt with tow that were specific, one was for wafer handling from an IC plant from the 70's and the other was one of those super fast delta spider bots, but this one had an articulating grasper (shit was mad crazy).

[@dts_user1389]

​@@zyxwvutsrqponmlkh I actually bought an AR4. But I have seen some people getting actual industrial robots used and getting them online. I think that would actually be sick! Thanks for the tip about how affordable this stuff is. I'll definitely have to take a look.

[@dts_user1389]

​@@zyxwvutsrqponmlkh Okay. I just scoured Ebay and FB for the past 30 minutes. Looks like used robots are actually a lot of hassle if you're trying to actually get something running that's going to continue running. If you have a cable go bad or a board component, you are going to first have to figure out what exactly failed (which is already hard if it was like an electrical component), then figure out how to get a spare. That does sound quite painful.