Introduction

First things first: the robotic arm is not a robotic hand! Don't expect to unpack the Dobot Magician and find an artificial hand that looks like a human's. We just thought we had to clarify for those of you with high expectations!


To put things into perspective, the Dobot Magician is a metallic 4-axis robotic arm. The black and white exterior is made up of ABS plastic cover panels. The arms used to position the various joints are made out of aluminum alloy fusion, which was selected for its durability and light weight. Even though the whole arm weighs 4 kg, the moving parts and components are really light. Furthermore, in order to ensure the sleekness and strength of the metal part's surface, the exterior was given an anodic oxidation treatment.


There are many ports, peripheral and communication interfaces, USB connectors, and even a few buttons. Thirteen extension ports exist, to be precise, and there is a programmable key and 2 MB of offline command storage; developers are as such left with many possible ways to create their own end tools with sensors and switches.


The connectors for the various I/O ports work well, but as with all electronics or moving parts, we need to be attentive while connecting or disconnecting these. The end-effectors can be switched out and in quickly with a plug-in-style end tool holder, so switching end tools takes place by screwing them on or off, which makes deploying and maintaining them rather affordable if you know your way around electronics.


When performing repetitive and delicate actions, Yuejiang claims the error of margin in precision to be as small as 0.2 mm. This would, if so, make the Dobot Magician a high-precision robotic arm for just about any delicate task. We will put the Dobot Magician through a series of repetitive actions, or will have it draw things, in an attempt to figure out whether that figure holds true (our tests did show it to be very accurate, but whether it is within 0.2 mm is unfortunately still beyond our capabilities to figure out).


Dobot's motors provide highly accurate speeds and consistent power for the robotic arm. The joints and motors also aren't that noisy. Just don't expect it to be completely silent since it is a machine with gears, cables, and other components that are bound to create noise.


The provided software supports a speedy look-ahead small-line-blocks interpolation algorithm that can fit any type of curve, which ensures processing efficiency. Dobot claims that with the Three Axis Linkage Method fine interpolation, one can control the trajectory of the end effector of the Dobot accurately, which makes complex curvilinear motions possible.

Despite the fact that it is affordable for a robotic arm, the Dobot can be used for light industrial, educational, and household purposes. Even though this robotic arm is designed for desktop mounting, it can work equally well with safety and precision if placed on a wheel platform or even rails. It all depends on what you have in mind or what you can come up with in the process. Apply plenty of fantasy and some knowledge of electronics and programming and we strongly believe that you will take full advantage of the Dobot Magician!