Braille Typewrite

What?

Collaborated with other engineers to make a Braille Typewriter that employs a Motion System with 2.5 degrees of freedom.
The machined pen utilizes the three stepper motors and a servo motor to punch the dots of the braille cells on a paper through G-CODE commands generated in MATLAB.
The Prototype is inspired from the mechanisms of 3D printers.

Parts and Components:

3 Stepper Motor
Servo Motor
25x25 Aluminum Extrusions.
Blackboard microprocessor
Acrylic 3mm

Relevant Skills:

Lathe (turning), CNC Milling, programming (MATLAB, GCODE), 3D Designing and 3D printing, collaboration, prototyping.

Results

When the User prompts the typewriter with words and/or sentences, it converts the corresponding letters to braille using a MATLAB script and sends G-Codes to the motors.
In the Video, the typewriter successfully prints the name -"Fahim Rabbi", "Nuo Lin" and "Lorenzo" when promted.

Lathe (Turning): Braille Pen

The Pen is machined out of a steel rod using a Lathe Machine.
Wire EDM machine is then used to cut a slit on the top of the pen for assembly purposes.
The pen converts the rotational motion of the Servo motor into a linear motion and punches the dots on the paper.

Manufacturing and Assembly

With the goal to make an efficient and structurally robust product, fundamental manufacturing processes are employed for the project. The final product demonstrates excellent craftmanship and reliability when it comes to its expectations

CNC Milling: Braille Bed

The Braille Bed is modeled in SolidsWORKS.
The Bed is then milled out of 3mm Acrylic board using Gibbs CAM and CNC Mill,
This acts as the slate on which the paper is punched dots on; base for the Pen to punch on the paper.

3D Printing: Linear Brackets

The motor holder and the linear guides for each of the aluminum extrusions were 3D printed using PLA material.
Precise Measurements of parts and 3D modeling on Solids works were critical part of the process.

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