This is a project that I started with a friend and with the only purpose of having fun. We started this project in the summer of 2019 to deepen our knowledge in robotics. The goal of this robot is simple: always serve the perfect beer! We came up with a design that we modelised in SketchUp, and we quickly started with the mechanical side of things.
Our first idea was to open the beer bottle by spinning a cogwheel (here a hockey puck with notches on its circumference) attached to a drill, and hence popping the cap when approaching the device. After some testing, we quickly came to the conclusion that the horizontal force to apply between the cap and the wheel was simply too much to handle for a robot like ours.
After some research, we found that the direct force to apply in order to open the beer's cap was ~20 kPa (2.9 pound-force). Our workaround was to order two powerful linear actuators (able to push 125lbs each) and design a moving system so serving and decapsulating the beer at the same time wouldn't be a problem. The motor used to rotate the beer is a standard window motor you can find in older honda civic/subaru models (purchased online too).
After numerous failed attemps, we managed to open our first beer!! :)
Our robot is still a prototype, so our work is still in progress. All of the code used to move the robot is listed in this repo. As for the circuits, I used an Arduino Uno, two 12V DC motor controllers (L298N) and a 12V power supply (8 AA batteries in serial).
Sources: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ut_lZWhz2LU https://howtomechatronics.com/tutorials/arduino/arduino-dc-motor-control-tutorial-l298n-pwm-h-bridge/ https://www.banggood.com/Wholesale-L298N-Dual-H-Bridge-Stepper-Motor-Driver-Board-p-42826.html?rmmds=myorder&cur_warehouse=USA https://www.banggood.com/DC-12V-200N-50-300mm-Stroke-Tubular-Motor-Linear-Actuator-Motor-p-1142871.html?rmmds=myorder&ID=515969&cur_warehouse=CN https://www.amazon.ca/Dorman-742-815-Subaru-Driver-Window/dp/B00CPYAQBC/ref=asc_df_B00CPYAQBC/?tag=googleshopc0c-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=292965422580&hvpos=1o6&hvnetw=g&hvrand=13952548413645323556&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9060806&hvtargid=pla-571705341035&psc=1