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Now that we had performed the necessary calculations, we started to accumulate materials to build our final prototype. We decided to build the mechanism out of aluminum due to it's ready availability as well as our teams' familiarity with the material. In addition, it appeared that aluminum would provide the necessary strength with relatively light weight.
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Make an Arduino-Controlled Robot.PDF
We obtained the DC motor (Polulu 131:1 Metal Gearmotor 37Dx57L mm with 64 CPR Encoder) we needed from Dr. Deshpande's lab: DC Motor.jpg
The rest of our parts were those readily on hand in the machine shop or purchased from McMaster Carr.
Planning:
When planning to build our prototype, we created a large solidworks model of our entire planned jumping mechanisms. Due to time and material availability constraints, we had to reduce the number of springs and legs that we wished to build to 2 total 4 bar mechanisms with one torsional spring on each 4 bar mechanism. The Solidworks model is attatched below for convenience.
Building and Test:
Next, we built up a working prototype to test. This prototype required a significant amount of time and effort from everyone on the team and we encountered many difficulties along the way. One of the main difficulties was using set screws to attach the d-shafts to the driving link interacting with the cam and the links on the four bar driven by this d-shaft. We had originally intended to use #2-56 set screws to attach these, but found that we did not have a small enough alan wrench to properly drive these into the holes. As a result, our mechanism slipped and the alignment of the mechanism was off such that it did not properly load the torsional springs. This design flaw could easily be remedied by using flanged attachments with set screws through them to attach to the legs and the d-shaft, and we intend to fix this problem and work on improving this prototype.
At the
Brainstorming:
Resources: