A servomotor is a rotary actuator which receives electric signals or orders and rotates with precise control of angular position, velocity and acceleration. It consists of a motor joined to a sensor for position feedback. It also requires a sophisticated controller.
In our case we controlled it through the Arduino software, and connected the servomotor to the Arduino board to make it recieve the orders. Once it has recieved the data from the computer, the board stores the information and makes it work when it receives an specific signal from the sensors. Then it turns the determined number of degrees in an specific direction, speed and strength, depending on what signal it receives and what you've programmed with the software.
We've been using these motors to make some Arduino robots work. Ours consisted on a rocking chair-robot which had a foil heart which, when being touched, activated those servomotors and lifted the arms and the legs. This was possible because the board received a signal from the capacitive sensor (the foil), which receives current from our skin, and then activated the servomotor, which rotated some degrees and pulled a piece of thread which was attached to it and to the arms and the legs, and with the pulley effect, those were lifted. It was hard to attach the thread to the servomotor and the lifts, and make the capacitive sensor work, but we finally made it and it was cool.
I hope you liked, see you in the next post!
