This week we had a multitude of projects to complete, and the following post will detail everything!
Chassis Concepts
1. Tricycle Style
For my first chassis concept, I was inspired by the tricycle, using three points of movement. There is one steering module for the front wheel that will ideally be servo powered. The wheels in the back are hinged to the body to provide suspension for the chassis. Only the wheels in the back will be motor powered and the front wheel will be solely for steering. Bounding boxes for the battery and Arduino are on the bottom and top surfaces, respectively.
2. Four Wheeled Chassis
For my second prototype, I chose to design a more traditional vehicle chassis. I stuck with the single steering mechanism for ease of syncing the wheel movement, but added some cuts at the top of the chassis. I envisioned guiding rods running through the holes to add stability to the front wheel mechanism, as one connecting point to the chassis did not seem too stable. The motored wheels will be in the back, as shown by the larger boxes attached to those.
The prototype:
3. Mammalian Legged Chassis
For my third prototype, I wanted to stray from the traditional vehicle mechanisms and decided to attempt to model four-legged animal movement. Unfortunately it is not particularly sturdy or wieldy, but I am interested in exploring other implementations of the movement. Currently, the prototype uses cams and "linkages" to create the forward stepping movement, but I made a rookie mistake in making the bar holding the cam go all the way to the other end of the opening, effectively blocking the cam from fully rotating. The orientation of the legs on the cams also needs to be better developed.
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