Gripper

Sparki has two little grippers that can grab objects and drag them around.

How It Works

Sparki’s grippers are driven by the same stepper motor that the wheels use. The grippers are driven by rack and pinion style gear. For Sparki, each arm is a rack, and the stepper motor has the gear:

Using the Part

With the basic Sparki code in place, you can move the gripper using these commands:

sparki.gripperOpen();  // opens the grippers
sparki.gripperOpen(width_cm);  // opens the grippers by width_cm centimeters
sparki.gripperClose(); // closes the grippers
sparki.gripperClose(width_cm); // closes the grippers by width_cm centimeters
sparki.gripperStop();  // stops the gripper from moving

SparkiDuino already has code examples for you to use:
File->Examples->Gripper

/*******************************************
 Basic Gripper test

 Sparki has two little grippers it can be 
 used to grab objects and drag them around.
 See what you can grab with them!

 
Gripper

********************************************/
#include <Sparki.h> // include the sparki library

void setup()
{
}

void loop()
{
  sparki.gripperOpen();  // open the robot's gripper
  delay(1000);           // for 1 second (1000 milliseconds)

  sparki.gripperClose(); // close the robot's gripper
  delay(1000);           // for 1 second (1000 milliseconds)

  sparki.gripperStop();  // stop the grippers from moving
  delay(1000);           // for 1 second (1000 milliseconds)

  sparki.gripperOpen(3);  // open the robot's gripper by 3 centimeters
  sparki.gripperClose(3); // close the robot's gripper by 3 centimeters
  delay(1000);           // wait 1 second (1000 milliseconds)
}