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January 18/2000 - Build Update 1 Back on the robot building horse again after a few months off. Last semester was no fun for me, so I decided to take it easy this semester and only take 3 courses. On top of that, I am doing a project course to build some control electronics for my new robot Pressure Drop (named after a wonderful Toots and the Maytals reggae song). After rushing through the design and construction of Son of Smashy, I really wanted to do something more thought out and interesting, so I decided to build a walker. With the help of my friend Aaron at school, I designed a walking platform last semester for a mechanical design project. This semester I intend to build the robot we designed. I have the whole thing drawn out in SolidWorks, but if I showed you now, there would be no suspense! A few details of the design are as follows: 6 legs powered by a single motor, walking with a fixed tripod gait and a rotatable weapon turret, all weighing in under 183 lbs. I have decided to reuse the weapon from SOS, but it will be going through an overhaul in the coming months. I will post build updates when I get the chance, and I hope you find some or all of this interesting and/or informative. - Derek. Suggested Listening During Early January Robot Building: NOFX - White Trash Two Heebs and A Bean Beck - Midnite Vultures Toots and the Maytals - The Very Best of Toots and the Maytals |
| Due to my loving parents at Christmas time, my robot room (IE kitchen) is now stocked with more tools. New additions are a Sawzall Plus, a 1/2 hp 10" drill press and a 1/2 hp 6" bench grinder. I am already finding out how nice it is to have these things around. To accommodate the new additions, I had to build an extension on my workbench. |
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A close up of the extension and the Crasftman drill press. And yes, the door opens, but just bearly. Son of Smashy is under the table. |
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I'm re-using the 2 of the old Mr Smashy/Son of Smashy drive motors again, this time in my own homebuilt linear actuators. While disassembling the Mr.S/SOS drivetrain for the first time in two years, I noticed that one motor on each side has a broken armature shaft -- the output shaft isn't even connected to the spinning armature! I have no idea how long that has been the case, but it couldn't have helped SOS's performance much. Let's hear it for redundant systems though... |
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$100 later, and I have the first 63 feet of metal for Pressure Drop. 1" square mild steel tube, 3/4" square mild steel tube, 1 1/4" round mild steel tube. and 1/2" heat treated 4140 rod. |
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The first cut parts. These are to become leg segments. The legs are triangular and made of 3/4" tubing. |
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Here's the jig I rigged up to make the legs all the same triangular shape. I'm trying something new this time -- precision welding... sort of. |
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Apres welding. I honestly didn't expect it to burn so much. Oh well. It worked out well though and all the legs turned out to be roughly the same shape. |
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My welding area, outside my kitchen door. The spotlight had to come out at 5:00pm in the afternoon, as the days are hella short here in the great white north during the winter. I wish I had someplace better to do this, but I don't want to risk welding inside. |
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The finished set of legs. All 6 of them plus 2 spares. I had some problems with welding blow through, because I am using thinner tubing than I am used to, but near the end I was getting the hang of it. |
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Next step, take 1 sawzall and make a rack of legs into 8 separate pieces. Nice and easy. |
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After a good amount of extremely loud time spent at the grinder, the welds don't look so bad. |
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The rest of the parts so far. I'll be heading to the machine shop at school a bunch this week to fabricate as many pieces as possible, so that I can really start getting some work done. |
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