Here’s a really cool application of 3D printing and robotics by a fellow named [Maundy] – He’s created a very unique kinetic robot which relies on gravity to walk around.
All the electronics are housed in the cylinder as shown above. It can roll freely back and forth by some kind of mechanism inside (not shown), but the beauty of it is, when the cylinder rolls to one end, gravity takes over and the little robot actually flips through the air, reorienting itself onto its other feet.
Due to the flipping nature of the bot, it can even climb over small obstacles with ease – but this one can’t steer, so there’s no threat of them taking over the world. Perhaps with a modification to the control cylinder (turn it into a ball), the robot could orientate itself vertically, and then kind of spin in place in order to steer…
Anyway, you have to see it to believe it, so stick around after the break to see it in action!
[via Makezine]
It looks like a progress meter
This is not a new approach.
I’ve seen at least a few children’s toys that use, essentially, the same mechanism.
what stops it flipping backwards?
Inertia ? But you are right if the timing of the heavy cylinder moving forward was delayed physics says that it would move backwards.
The center of gravity in the cylinder is not located on the axis of the cylinder. In other words, think of a hamster wheel. The hamster stays at the bottom of the wheel due to gravity, but the wheel spins in the direction the hamster is facing because of the force the motor (rodent) is pushing. This means the entire visible structure has to be lighter than the counterweight it’s carrying, or it will flip backwards like you imagine.
I could not for the life of me figure out the scale of this thing until I realized it was done on a 3d printer and not made of metal.framework.
Haha, glad I’m not the only one. I was imagining an ambulatory sawhorse.
Imagine a huge 6 floor high one walking across town. And some of the oil-rich arabs could get that done for fun.
If the world were only 2 dim, this would be great.
I could definitely see apps for this using BLE and/or xbee/other rf to use it in a 3d spectrum. Those stands seem like they may be more power efficient but the practicality seems less likely with them.
Huh?
Are you sure you read the same article as the rest of us?
Steering could be done by shifting the stands’ pivots.
Or perhaps by dynamically shortening one side’s legs?
Or maybe articulated steering, with a hub in the middle – you just have to wait for the rolling weight to pass or di ot while the unit is flipping, but that would impart balance issues.
… Or using two of these that works like as a differential drive.
Ah, right in the childhood. The He-Man Attack Track.
http://img.4plebs.org/boards/tg/image/1394/32/1394320013312.jpg
That’s exactly what I was thinking of when I saw this. You must’ve grown up in the 80s. Now I want to see someone build an autonomous replica of the Attack Track using something like this…
that would really shouldn’t be that hard.
reminds me of the dragon walker more.
http://www.rubylane.com/item/135665-9991/Dragon-Walker-1984-He-Man
DUDE!!!
I was thinking of the Dragon Walker from He-Man. Now THAT’s a mechanism!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-UFnWc7ieyM
http://cyberneticzoo.com/walking-machines/1971-steppingwalking-machine-katysu-%D0%BA%D0%B0%D1%82%D1%8B%D1%81-soviet/
My new goal in life: Make a full size dragon walker. Thank you for reminding me of that.