Robotic Scalextrics

scalectrics

At the Volkswagen factory there are two towers – AutoTürme – filled with gigantic robots lifting cars into parking spaces. It’s by far the most efficient way of putting a huge number of cars in a small footprint. Slot cars exist, so how about a completely overwrought yet entirely awesome robotic parking garage for 1:32 scale cars? (.es, Google translatrix)

The project is built around several ‘racks’ to hold cars arranged around a central elevator. An Arduino takes care of moving all the motors and reading all the sensors, with the basic idea behind the project being the ability to select a car and have it appear in the pit of the track a few moments later.

Although this is just one small part of what is already a very impressive slot car track, it is however the most electronic. Other unique additions include a very unique cantilever/suspension bridge and the usual modeling techniques of creating a landscape with little more than cardboard and glue.

The best way to get a sense of how cool the parking garage is through the video. You can check that out below.

Thanks [Oscar] for sending this one in.

10 thoughts on “Robotic Scalextrics

  1. cool system I’m wondering if you could get a quicker place to place time by having the software move both rotation and up/down simultaneously or if that would cause cars to fall off.

  2. Needs an interrupt in the part where the arm is descending if it’s not carrying a car. Way too much time wasted waiting for the arm to go all the way to the bottom and then all the way up again.

  3. It seems like a little bit too much work. Don’t get me wrong, I love the execution and opportunities for improivement, but why carry the 200g piece of track with the 100g car? Drive on/drive off under CPU control, or simply fork the car from track to stack…
    Also stacking density leaves a ‘bit of room’ for improvement,

    Does the CPU sense & position the car on the movable track segment – or the user?
    Nice work – a product in 12 months time!

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