Security, Science & HardwareDone with Claude Code
Design and build a robotic arm with no CAD experience
A builder used Claude Code with FreeCAD and Claude Vision to design, print, and assemble a 5-DOF servo arm with vision and voice control.
- What They Did
- Claude Code wrote one Python macro that FreeCAD re-rendered live, building every part of the arm from boolean operations. The builder iterated by conversation, then printed and assembled the arm. For control, a laptop script sent Whisper speech and a webcam frame to Claude Vision. Claude returned JSON actions, local inverse-kinematics code converted target pixels to servo angles, and an ESP32 drove the servos.
- How It Went
- About 30 hours from design to assembly produced four working servos. The gripper is not built, there is no feedback loop, and the pixel-to-world calibration is only approximate.
- Worth Knowing
- Expect print fixes. The builder taped two servos, glued a lid, reprinted the base turntable, and replaced a failed print-in-place hinge. FreeCAD's macro runner also needs ASCII-only scripts.
Try it yourself with Claude Code
Help me design a [N]-DOF robotic arm from scratch using FreeCAD via MCP, including part files ready for 3D printing and a servo control script, even though I have no CAD experience. Guide me through printing, assembly, and wiring, stopping to confirm before any step that involves ordering parts.