Tying daisy chains by hand is slow, fiddly work, and threading one stem through a slit in another without tearing it seems like the sort of task nobody wants to repeat all afternoon. That is the problem this build tackles: a robot that makes daisy chains on its own, built as a final dissertation project at the University of Glasgow.
The way it was put together is what caught my attention. The machine, titled Daisy, runs on two core XZ gantries taken from Voron Switchwire printers, set into a frame of slotted aluminium extrusions. There are custom printed parts in yellow, white and grey, linear guide rails, timing belts, stepper and servo motors, flexible cable carrier chains, a perforated metal power supply and a controller board. The whole thing runs Klipper, heavily modified, which in my view is the perfect fit for a machine this unusual.
The details that stand out are the gripper assemblies, which use 3D printed gear mechanisms and clamping fingers, and the mechanical arm carrying a piercing tool for the stems. Stems travel along a narrow conveyor track driven by a stepper motor. A gripper holds a daisy while the arm punctures a slit through the stem, then opposing rotating gripper heads thread the incoming stem through that slit to link the flowers together.
One open question: the machine can run much faster than shown, but the maker keeps it slow for safety and a more cinematic look. I would love to know how quick it gets at full pace.
Project by Jude Robinson. Watch it on their YouTube channel: