What Did You Build this Weekend?

I did plenty of building this long holiday weekend.  I was lucky enough to have another epic building weekend.  Lots of time and lots of Lego.

I am inspired by the first twenty seconds of this video...

I had a lot of success with my first Flexpicker and now thanks to a friend I have some awesome code that will run the Flexpicker far more accurately.  So I decided to make my next project would be...(click "Read More" below)

Flexpicker II

I have been working a new Flexpicker.  I have some great ideas since building the last one. Here's a shot of this WIP.

There's a lot of similarities, but there is one MAJOR difference.  On the first version, I faked the movements.  The robot basically moved around to several preprogrammed positions.  It didn't really do any mathematical calculations.  But now I have found someone who has done those calculations and he was kind enough to share lots (all) of the mathematics I need to make this thing pretty impressive.  He even did a complete and thorough tutorial on the Trossen robotics page.  See it here.  I have been following his instructions and they are quite good.  If you want to build a complete Flexpicker Delta robot and don't know where to start with the programming and Math, go here.  It's pretty involved though, so if you don't have a strong stomach for 3D geometry and Math, be warned.

I am confident that his programming works because he has a great video that can be found on the tutorial.

A New Parallel Robot

Panasonic now has a version of the parallel robot.  The Flexpicker is still tops in my book, but this one has some extra features. 


Panasonic introduces a new Parallel link robot in Japan from HIC Network on Vimeo.

Delta Robot

As you may know, I am a fan of Delta Robots, especially the ABB Flexpicker.  I even built one.

Here is a non-Lego Delta Robot that rocks, and it is even comparable to the original.



I found this over at Make

HELLO WORLD!

WELCOME TO TINKERNOLOGY!

Tinkernology is a blog that hopes to share years of experience of

building and programming with you.

My name is Chris. I have been a fan of Lego for about 20 years and a Mechanical Engineer for 12 years. I build Technic models and RCX and NXT robots.

I have built hundreds of MOCs, but one of my favorite parts of building is working through the details. By this I mean getting the gear ratio right, making the structure strong enough, making the MOC look right, making all the functions operate correctly and so on. Every complex assembly consists of several small functions. To make the large complex, you must understand each and every one of the small functions. That is what I plan to share; not necessarily the complete MOC, but the small parts that come together to make the creation.

When I build, I typically will build the same detail over and over, making changes until everything is just right. This has given me experience, and I want to share it with you. I don’t expect that I will show you ground breaking technology, but give you lots inspiration and ideas.

I have many topics that I want to share. Some of them are;
-Gearing, gearboxes, gear trains
-Sturdy building techniques
-Pneumatics
-Linkages
-Storage and building area ideas
-Physics and simple machines
-Building methodologies
-Motion and energy
-Engineering
-How to work with sensors
-Programming
-Unique building ideas
-My projects

I hope to post at least once a week, possibly more. I have tons of ideas for posts, so it may be a fast start.

I am an avid fan of robotics. Nearly every day I keep up on the state of the art robots. I spend time watching robot videos and reading robot blogs. I will share the interesting ones I find with you, so don’t expect every post to be purely Lego related. I look outside the Lego community for inspiration.

My current claim to fame is my Lego Flexpicker found on YouTube.



It has been featured on several blogs including MAKE magazine, Gizmodo, TechnicBricks, TheNXTStep, singularityhub, and industrialcontroldesignline.com. I plan share many of the building techniques and my experiences with you.

The first bit of advice I have for you, is to build, build, build! You can think all day about a project, but unless you try to build it you will never learn if it works or not.