Progress Post Haste

Here is a summary of our goals and progress over the past few weeks, outlined in Evan's notebook.


Week 1

Goals
Design overall body type and decide how the legs will act in tandem with the body
Find suitable leg design, since mechanics have already been chosen
Brainstorm what the electrical components will be


Accomplished
Decision to use gear trains (more reliable and easier to do with legos) and angled body (to accommodate the leg mechanics)
Use continuously rotating servo motor as power (high torque) 




Week 2 

Goals
Make the legs in SolidWorks
Get rough body shape made out of legos
Decided how to cut down on volume of legs

Accomplished
Legs mostly outlined
Body built and gear train added



Week 3

Goals
Refine and finish legs
Get servo from Professor Sullivan to fit into housing without glue
Get Arduino sketch started and basic electronics setup

Accomplished
Legs were finished and drastically cut down in size, cutouts made and bodies "I-beamed"
Servo connected into gear train

Proof of Motion

The basic structure of the legs has taken form. The triangular linkages were simplified to solid triangles and the connecting pieces were made as slimmed down beams. Each piece has been "I-beamed", so the cross section of every beam and triangle is I-beam shaped.

With any luck, the crab leg factory (Professor Sullivan) will be able to generate these legs soon, and our child will be able to walk.




-All of these pieces and this motion study were created by Team Mechanical Inspiration in Solid Works from scratch.

All Aboard!

After testing and tinkering and a photo shoot, The Crab had a central support stand which will support the Arduino Brain and wire nerves.

The main feature of the support is shown in the video below: the (chugga chugga) gear train!
These gears will allow the legs to operate.

The Crab will be able to walk soon.

The Crab has evolved from a prior design. It no longer has a single axis to rotate all the legs on one side, rather pairs of legs will rotate on the same axis.

Also, the design will now incorporate a continuous servo (graciously provided by the resourceful Professor Sullivan), which will provide more torque than a DC motor so The Crab will survive on its own.

(We realized we have a shortage of these gears, hopefully we can find a few more around our houses when a couple of us go back home this weekend. Fingers crossed!)

The Building Blocks of Life

In order for The Crab to come to life, one must start with the skeleton and work outward.

The legs were first to be conceived.

The body is yet to come.

These building blocks will provide necessary support in the evolution of The Crab.

Mechanical Crab Update

Found prospective leg design using linkages.

Link: http://www.amandaghassaei.com/files/thesis.pdf

       Page 6 contains basic overview of leg.
       Page 25 contains optimal ratios for linkage lengths.

 

 

 



 

Legs have been remade to visualize motor movement, using makeshift Cad parts and linkages. Model will have various changes to accomodate proper look and functionality. 

 

 

 

 

 

Overview

This blog records the progress of the Final Project for 22.201.
The team consists of:
       -Evan Brown (section 809)
       -Ben Johnson (section 808)
       -Forrest Otsuka (section 805)

*The name of the author of the blog, Beevfo Jobros, is a play on the team members' names.
Ben Evan Forrest Johnson Brown Otsuka

For our final project, the initial concept will be to design and build a robotic crab.

This is a Test

Hello World.