22 Jun 2010
3d-printing
issy
robots
I got another day of solid printing out of the Makerbot. Finished printing Issy's legs, printed his
head camera mount, and the first segment of the tail. The head camera mount is a fairly massive
print, at 3.5" x 1.75" and an inch tall. The first attempt warped massively after the first 3
ayers and had to be tossed. I got a much better raft on the second one, and it came out fine
(some warpage, but not enough to ruin the print). I'm hoping to crank out the snout and second
tail section tomorrow.
Unfortunately, no pictures. My camera is on vacation in Florida. But, here's a rendering of the
final head/snout with the MS Lifecam cameras:
10 Jun 2010
3d-printing
issy
robots
One of the key features desired for Issy3 is a set of feet with tactile feedback. I've played with
FSR versions in the past, and they tend not to survive that long.
Two afternoons of prototyping and printing has yielded the first of Issy's new feet. I have one leg
assembled, but I'll still have to get some different hardware tomorrow to tweak it completely.
The foot consists of three printed parts: the outer case, the foot pad, and a retainer insert inside
the case. A screw connects throw the foot pad and the retainer, and a spring pushes the foot downward.
There will be a little spring steel connector on top that will get touched by the screw -- acting as
a simple switch. A vinyl footpad gives traction.
Each foot takes about an hour of printing on the Makerbot.
20 May 2010
events
issy
mech-warfare
robots
ros
Well, it's almost a month since Robogames, but it's been hectic with the end of the semester. The
semester is now over though, so it's robot time again.
Issy did terrible in Mech Warfare. He walked like a champ, but had numerous other issues. On Friday
afternoon his gun literally exploded inside. Thankfully, I found a Sports Authority around the corner
and purchased an extra gun (have I mentioned how much more convienient of a venue San Mateo is over
the old place?). Apparently though the Trendnet camera decided that 6V was just too much - it stopped
working on Saturday, and Issy was dunn for. He's already been torn down, and retired from Mech Warfare.
He'll be rebuilt over the course of the next month or so, this time with a Fit-PC2, stereo camera head,
and a tail. He's going to be running ROS, which ought to be cool. Here's a teaser shot of what he will
(hopefully) look like:
On other fronts, I'll be posting some other robot goodies over the coming days. I'm currently working on
some finishing software touches for our first "social" robot at Albany, Nelson. I'm also working on a
robowaiter entry for next April.