Our second design relied on a geared system that would have 4 shafts arranged along the corners of the square. There would be a motor shaft that would be always rotating attached to a differential to allow the two halves of the shaft to be rotating in opposite directions. A base and arm shaft would be connected to the fixed gears on the motor shaft via free gears on those respective shafts. Opposite the motor shaft would be a hold shaft that would act as a locking mechanism for either the arm or the base if need be since that is stationary and could slow the shaft to a stop.
This was a rather good design except for a few major flaws:
- If the base is rotating it will disengage from the other shafts unless it carries the entire structure with it when rotating.
- The system would effectively require 6 clutch systems total for the engaging or disengaging of gears in each shaft.
- Would be rather complex to build and maintain in general and thereby needed to be simplified
- This lead to the creation of design 3
