Fabrication and Assembly
We fabricated every part of our robot except for our electronics and bearings. We laser cut all of our links, gears, and plates. The gears and plates were cut using 6mm acrylic while the links were cut using 6mm plywood . We chose to use acrylic for the gears because they would produce less friction and provide more strength than the plywood. Acrylic was used for the plates because they were transparent which allowed for the entire robot to be seen. We chose plywood for the links so they wood stand out against the acrylic. Laser cutting the majority of our parts had the advantage of quick fabrication. We saved hours of manufacturing time by laser cutting instead of 3D printing most of our parts. The only parts we did 3D print were parts that were not possible to manufacture in a single cut. This parts included our battery holder, switch enclosure, and motor mount.
Figure 1: Fully Fabricated and Partially Assembled Design
Once fabrication was complete, we started assembling our robot plate by plate. We started by inserting bearings into our plates and links. We then press fit wooden dowels into the bearings of the links as well as into the gears by hammering the dowels. We
Figure 2: Fully Assembled Design
Electronics and Circuitry
Our robot was purposefully designed to require very simple electronics and circuitry. We used an open-loop system where the output of our system had no influence on our input. We used a brushed DC motor, a 11.1V Lipo Battery, and a power switch. The motor supplies the torque to move our entire robot. The battery power went straight to the motor and the switch was located in between them in the circuit so the motor could be easily turn on off. The design of our robot allowed for this simple electronic and circuit setup with no need for any software development.
Figure 3: Top View of Electronics