VII. Conclusions and Future Work - CZ
The mechanism goals that I set out to meet when I originally proposed this robot project are as follows:
Robot walks under its own power.
Is stable
Is durable
Is reasonably easy to build
Is reasonably low cost (<$100)
The final robot was able to successfully walk under its own power despite many issues with motor torque and linkage resistance. Since that was the primary goal of the project, I am very proud to have achieved it. In addition, the robot appears to be reasonably stable and durable due to the well-designed frame and extra thick linkages. I predict that the first failure point will likely be the 3d printed shafts but only time will tell if that is the case. The last two requirements are the ones which I didn't meet perfectly in this project. First, while the manufacturing of the parts for the robot on the lasercutter was quick and easy, the assembly process was very long and difficult. Unfortunately, I don't see a way to make the assembly much easier on this project and I don't feel that anything was unnecessarily difficult to assemble. Finally, the overall budget for the project ended up being about $125 which was higher than my initial target of $100 but still not unreasonable. For the average person who would consider taking on this robot project, they would likely have some of the hardware required already which could bring the overall cost down below the $100 threshold. While I did not meet every single one of these goals perfectly, I am very proud with the functionality of the project.
In conclusion, this project was an incredible learning experience with many difficulties along the way. While the final robot worked as intended, there are many things about the robot that I would like to improve in a future revision of the project:
Add bearings to all of the bolted joints so that there is almost no friction at the joints of the robot.
Replace all of the lasercut wooden components with aluminum to make the robot stronger.
Replace the shafts and motor adapter with metal shafts.
Change the gear ratio between the motor and the legs to reduce stalling.
Perform a proper analysis of the motor torque required for the robot to walk and increase the size of the motors accordingly.
Update the programming so that the robot can change directions quickly and accurately.
Add sensors to the robot so that it can sense and react to its surroundings.
I would like to continue to upgrade this robot project over time and use it as a chance to learn more about designing and manufacturing robots. I want to thank Dr. Deshpande and our TA, Aldo Galvan for organizing the ME 350R class and this project in particular. I feel that I have learned a lot over the course of this semester and hope to bring the experience from this semester to my future courses and career.
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