First Concept
This was my first attempt in trying to use flexible PCBs as robot legs!
As shown in the video, this prototype managed to make some small steps but I was expecting better behavior. These are all the things that needs to be improved for MKII:
- Align the PCB so that all legs deliver the same amount of force - strongest point is the middle of the coil; if misaligned, different forces with different angles are produced.
- Reduce the gap between the PCBs and magnet.
- Reduce weight.
MKII Test Video!
Now that I have proofed that the idea can work out, I can start designing MKIII.
PCB Robot MKIII will be made from just a PCB, magnets and a battery. This cheap robot will be ideal for swarm robotics.
MKIII - Design
In this new video, I explain how I designed my four-legged PCB Robot MKIII, having a BLE module and a simple circuit for driving the coils and charging them!
MKIII - Testing
The PCB Robot is finally crawling around! I document all the progress in this video
2-Legged PCB Robot?
After my last test I conclude that to make the robot go faster, I need to use a higher current rated battery to pump more current into the coils, or use a lighter one to.
But what if I reduce that weight by cutting off two legs? And that's what I tested. By doing this the robot was no longer omni-directional, but this change immediately showed that the concept was working better. The magic happened after shifting the turning axes of the robot. Its not 100% balanced, from the video you can see that one of the legs is slightly shifting and not move straight. But it's now probably faster than a turtle :-)
I'm not going to abandon the 4-legged PCB Robot design just yet. I still looking and get quotes from different manufactures on different lipo batteries. Once I receive the battery I will test the robot again and maybe even add a similar pivot to see what happens. In the meantime, I I can also start playing around the the modules Bluetooth stack!
MKIII Final Test
In this video I went back to retest my PCB Robot! I upgraded the firmware to controller it over Bluetooth, added a new LiPo and tested how the weight and position of the battery effected the locomotion of the robot.
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