7) Conclusion/Future Work - RA

Conclusion

The team successfully built a mechanism that imitates the running motion of a human with a single motor. The assembled 3D printed gears and links moved smooth enough to demonstrate the natural running motion, and wooden parts were strong enough to hold the lightweight 3D printed figurine. As the team went through multiple iterations of 3D printing and laser cutting, it learned that the two manufacturing methods facilitate numerous design iterations due their compatibility with CAD software and minimal skill required by the user.

Future Work

For future work, aesthetics of the mechanism could be improved. The current model has all the gears and links exposed and the torso of the figurine is a simple rectangle. To make the mechanism look more like either a human or an android, a head, hands, and feet should be added. In addition, no control scheme has been implemented for our mechanism. The motor in the mechanism could potentially be controlled by a ultrasonic sensor to turn itself on and off by a doing a motion in front of the sensor. Also, the team failed to create a jumping mechanism for the figurine as well as a "merry-go-round" mechanism that rotate the obstacles the figurine would jump over. Provided more time, those two mechanisms should be added.