I'm amazed at how functional printed harmonic drives can be, though I'm curious how long they will last. Any chance you could run one of these until failure, possibly with a mechanism to count rotations?
Also what kind of torque can these things hold and how big are you thinking of making an arm?
And if you're making a manipulator or walking robot, you really ought to see if you can't print a torsion spring with a relatively linear response. That way you can make something called a series elastic actuator. Basically you put a torsion spring between your harmonic drive and whatever you're trying to move and measure the deformation of the spring, this way you can get a measure of the torque on your actuator. And if you know actuator torques, there's quite a bit of cool stuff you can do.
In addition, the spring helps isolate the gearbox from any shocks experienced. One can also use the spring to store energy, something that's really useful if you're building a walking robot.
Also what kind of torque can these things hold and how big are you thinking of making an arm?
And if you're making a manipulator or walking robot, you really ought to see if you can't print a torsion spring with a relatively linear response. That way you can make something called a series elastic actuator. Basically you put a torsion spring between your harmonic drive and whatever you're trying to move and measure the deformation of the spring, this way you can get a measure of the torque on your actuator. And if you know actuator torques, there's quite a bit of cool stuff you can do.
In addition, the spring helps isolate the gearbox from any shocks experienced. One can also use the spring to store energy, something that's really useful if you're building a walking robot.