STM32 Robot Arm With Smartphone Control

Robot arm project with 6 servo motors wirelessly controlled via Bluetooth developed using STM32 and ESP32 microcontroller. 3 MG995 and 3 SG90 motors are used. It is a simple bluetooth control application developed with MIT AppInvertor. We can give the desired motor the movement we want.

Materials

1. - STM32F103C8T6 Microcontroller (Model: BLUEPILL)
2. - Bluetooth Module (Model:ESP32)
3. - MG995 Servo Motor x 3
4. - Sg90 Servo Motor x 3
5. - Buzzer
6. - SSD1306 (OPTIONAL)
7. - 3D ROBOT ARM PARTS(https://howtomechatronics.com/tutorials/arduino/diy-arduino-robot-arm-with-smartphone-control/)
8. - Push Button
9. - Female Headers
10. - 2x3 Male Headers
11. - Led
12. - LM1117 3.3volt LDO
13. - 5volt 3 Amp Power Supply

HOW TO WORKING:

In this project, the STM32 microcontroller receives commands from the ESP32 Bluetooth module and transmits motion commands to the servo motors. The servo motors connected to each joint of the robot arm are programmed to move at certain angles using PWM with the TIMER channel. The user can control the robot arm via the mobile application.

Software Development In the software part, the firmware developed for STM32 focuses on Bluetooth communication and servo motor control. The main topics are as follows:

1. - Receiving data via Bluetooth
2. - Interpretation of incoming data
3. - Controlling servo motors with PWM signal
4. - Integration with user interface

It may not be possible for everyone to compile the code written with STM32 CubeIDE. Therefore, by sharing the executable BIN file directly, you can enable users to upload it to the STM32 microcontroller without additional compilation.

Steps to Load HEX File with ST-Link

1. Download ST-Link Programming Tool

STM32CubeProgrammer (Current tool recommended by STMicroelectronics)

ST-Link Utility (Older version, but still preferred by some users)

1. Connect STM32 with ST-Link

Make the SWD (Serial Wire Debug) connection using ST-Link V2 or V3.

The ST-Link must be connected to the computer via USB.

1. Load HEX File with STM32CubeProgrammer

Open the program and connect to STM32 by pressing the “Connect” button.

Select the BIN file you downloaded with the “Open file” option.

Load the BIN file to STM32 by pressing the “Download” button.

After the upload is complete, you can run the device by resetting it.

This application, developed using App Inventor, provides a simple and user-friendly interface for controlling your robot via Bluetooth.

Also below is the arduino code file to be installed in esp32. You can use it like a bluetooth module in this project using esp32 wroom.

I will try to do more projects on Youtube.

Thank you for reading