Modified Toy Claw Machine

The Modified Toy Claw Machine started as a standard off-the-shelf claw machine toy and was transformed into a fully custom-controlled automation project. The original electronics were stripped out and replaced with custom circuitry, giving full programmatic control over the claw's movement, gripper strength, and timing sequences.

The project was an exercise in reverse engineering and systems thinking. Taking apart an existing product, understanding how its motors and sensors worked, and then rebuilding it with a microcontroller-driven control system taught me a lot about practical automation — the kind of work that shows up in real industrial and robotics contexts.

The result is a claw machine that operates on programmable logic rather than fixed timing circuits, making it possible to tune the behavior, adjust difficulty, and extend it with sensors or wireless control in the future. It was a hands-on reminder that automation isn't just about building from scratch — sometimes it's about taking what exists and making it smarter.