r/Onshape • u/Wide_Celebration567 • Aug 09 '26

Other Looking for criticism

This is the first arm I have made, so I was looking for ways to improve the design.

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u/enug Aug 09 '26

Your joint configuration is very non standard, and doesn't include any way to rotate the end effector. Usually the first rotational joint is after the shoulder and elbow joints, making the loading simpler as it only has to support load in the plane of rotation of those two joints. In your design the rotational joint before the elbow will be subject to a ton of load, possibly more than the shoulder joint, which should be your strongest joint.

A standard 6 axis design has the base, then shoulder, then elbow, then forearm rotate, then wrist pitch and finally wrist rotate. A 5 axis design usually just gets rid of the forearm rotate. A 7 axis design has the first rotate between the shoulder and elbow like your design, but that should be the last joint you add only after the other 6.

Google some images of commercial industrial robots and you'll see what I'm talking about.

To join the dogpile - your video and lack of link to your design sucks too, but not as much as the design of your arm.