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| Running Dinobot - by Dalle2 & Doug |
Here is the progress on the running robot...
a (literally) short video:
Perhaps I need a little help from another robot to visualize a potential application? Here are some options from DALLE-2 and Me! Which do you like?
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| Running Dinobot - by Dalle2 & Doug |
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| Running Dinobot - by Dalle2 & Doug |
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| Running Dinocyborg - by Dalle2 & Doug |
The skinny protype leg needs to be wider to support the robot. In general in needs to be more robust and handle the sideways transitional forces. To do this I am making the leg as wide as the 'pin' in my previously designed hinges. This pin is a 40mm finishing nail, which I have a box of. I have used them has hinge pins in the design of the wild weasel and Mojo4. This will provide some of the support needed for the sideways forces. The design must be carried forward down to the lower leg and foot.
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| Robot Running Leg Mechanism -v2 |
As the width of the robot increases, it is not possible to determine on which side the compliant link will go and the placement of the crank and crank gear. The back lifting linkage, does not need to be 'wide' as it is only projecting the motion, not the support.
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| Robot Running Leg Mechanism CAD (pins not shown) |
Also in this step, I am starting to think of how to drive the crank gear with a motor. I have a 3D printed gear box from a previous design to reuse (Tilt! and 3D gearbox). This gearbox will allow the robot to be driven by a brushed motor from a recycled printer.
Here is a video of the current design step:
As you can see, there is a lot of movement generated by the motor. The leg is thrown around creating an oscillation and some unwanted impulse movement. This will need to be considered (dampened)in future design steps.
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| Bot by George Beker |
Probably one of the most influential books of my computer development was Basic Computer Games. This book that was developed in the 1970s by David Ahl was ahead of its time.
I was a pre-teen with an APPLE ][+ computer (48k RAM), no disk drive, no hard drive. I would sit for hours and type the programs into the computer (it had a built in BASIC interpreter). Playing them was fun, and in the process, I was learning to code.
Perhaps more influential on me than the BASIC programs, was the artwork in the book. This is the work of George Beker.
I found his "not of this technical reality" Robots to be inspiring for some unknown reason. They were everyday, melancholy looking, and sentient(!) Loving them or not, It allowed me to visualize robots possessing a strong anthormothic spirit.
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| by George Beker |
You can find more information about George Beker here. The sites links are not all up to date. If you are interested in purchasing an ebook of his portfolio of robots you can find it at his publishers site: Kidware Software. it also has the BASIC Programming book.
Also - if you found the BASIC Programming Games book to be inspiring, there is an Open project underway to modernize it with current languages. you can find more information about that here.
