@@postualin6551 it would be great to see what he could do in bringing a Wall-e style robot to life with full animatronic features. Maybe even add some AI/machine learning to it.
@@thekaxmax I don’t really understand it on this robot though. On a Segway the driver intentionally leans forwards. The Segway then tries to “counter” it by speeding up. But what is causing this robot to lean forward and how does it speed up without falling backwards in the first place?
@@Mike-oz4cv TL;DR: it works just like a segway except that the robot 'intentionally leans forwards' by slowly driving the wheels backwards for a moment which tips it forwards. Anything after that point is just like a segway. Imagine it stands still in perfect balance, requiring no motor corrections. If it wants to start going one way now, it first tips itself out of balance into the direction it wants to go by driving the motors in the opposite direction (think, turning wheels backwards makes robot tip forwards like pulling a carpet under someone). So now that it is in an determined unstable state which wants to escalate (aka "fall over"), the robot can counteract the escalation by rotating the wheels into the tipping direction, so forwards, which converts escess rotative tipping-action into a translative driving-action.
another super interesting and quirky mechanism! i love it! this course type of track seems like a really robust traction system for an all terrain robot. i think the way the leading segment pivots down into the ground almost vertically would work well with a hook or spike at the front of each segment, so the robot would claw/pick axe its way along all kinds of obstacles.
@@TheNightstalkerShow Oh that's brilliant. I forgot that remote control toy vehicles of the 90's tried to out compete each other on wacky drive mechanisms. There is probably so much good material to try from there.
An idea for a robot, making a Mars rover, with proper steering and speed for each wheel, so they follow the ground perfectly. Not super quirky, but super nerdy to make it all work.
I really like how you adapt various ideas found online to make your own version for every other robot. Great job! Also that robot reminded me of Wall-e...)))
What an adorable robot. Give it some big eyes on the top and its almost perfect. TBH I think this robot would appreciate a 3rd wheel for stability kind of like an R2D2 setup where the 3rd support can come and go as needed.
Please Please Please do a series of tutorials with different levels of difficulty. I would pay money for a course by you, and there's not a lot of tutorials or courses for this kind of just for fun robotics that isn't pre-made kits. Love these vids so much!!!
i have some small magnets which i bought for a project that i play with while i watch videos. if i portioned them into 6 rods, i could move them the way the that this tread moves. i’ve wondered if there was a way to turn it into a tread, and here it is! this channel is so great and always has interesting ideas
Man, I am just a psychiatrist who always dreamed to be a robot builder hobbyst, since my childhood. For years a planned to start studies about robotics, but never had time enough to do that, until now when finally I´ve build a 3d printer. Now I want to start studying robotics, found your channel here , hope I can learn something here!
With the drive gear and Hall effect sensor next to each other above the roughly oval track on each side, it looks like drunk twin crabs with big mouths fighting over who is in charge. Very cute bot!
Perhaps a regular wheelchair could be fitted with a collar over each wheel to make them much wider for the beach. Maybe give the collar grooves for traction.
I don't understand how you are able to produce such amazing devices (and content) so quickly. I would think just printing the parts would consume the entire time from one video to the next, let alone any design, construction, prototyping, troubleshooting, video related aspects, etc. The only explanation I can come up with is that years ago you began 3D printing portions of your own body and steadily converting yourself to an android, and now that that's complete, human-James offers himself up in servitude to the greater good.
I am following for you for a while now. It's sooo awesome. It's like you have an engineering degree in all topics. Never saw someone like you, who can actually do some one this stuff. Engoying your videos. 😁
This could spin off into a serious of historic 'continuous track' vehicles. Dreadnought wheels and pedrail wheels are some of the more interesting ones that aren't directly a track drive but operate as one, similar to how rotapeds aren't exactly a continuous track drive in the typical sense but operate as one. Wikipedia would be a good starting place for the lineage that evolved into what we know as caterpillar tracks, though there are designs that exist outside of that lineage, but also somewhat in parallel with the lineage, which is how we eventually had rotapeds.
Another wheel idea: Imagine a wheel with spokes. Now take away the circle (rim), and leave only the spokes, with or without "feet". Now make each spoke telescope independently to drive every type of motion. Perhaps you have done this already. It should be able to hold position, move over obstacles, and climb stairs.
This made me think of NASA's contest for a mechanical design for a Venus rover. 2 Venus missions just got funding. One I believe will be some sort of rover. food for thought. Thanks again james for the great content. ✌
You used stretchy bungee cords, they used hard chains, the tracks can jump off due to the stretchiness, chains keep it in one place due to it being a fixed length and non changeable. Also add arms and some binocular eyes and make Wall- E
If the controller is aware of the orientation of the sprocket, you might be able to bias it towards the more-stable positions. Those known-good wheel positions will probably absorb a certain amount of momentum, so if the momentum you're trying to cancel is less than that amount, it's probably best to artificially stop in that position.
An off-road single wheeler would be interesting to see, together solving all of the potential issue to consider - gyros, treads, centre of balance, torque and the terrain it can comfortably travel over. Make and we will watch...
Here's an idea: Take a leaf out of the Leopard Geckos' book and create a self balancing, two "wheeled" water walking/running robot! We have your self balancers for Earth, drones for Air, Fire sounds pretty horrific, but water sounds like it could be done ;)
Definitely not a leopard gecko, but the nicknamed 'jesus lizard' for sure (i don't remember their actual name), would be neat to see a sonic version to run across the water though!
If you're still into weird wheels, you could make a robot driven completely by gyroscopic precession, whose only moving parts are the internally mounted gyroscopes and the gimbals on which they're mounted. It could be spherical (or whatever other shape, but all others would be less efficient). The advantage? Torque to drive the thing is not dependent on the action of gravity on a center of mass within the thing. (AKA, limited the torque required to achieve 9.82 m/s^2 acceleration times the sine of the maximum angle by which the center of mass of the robot can be displaced.) With potentially far higher torque, you get quicker starts and stops, sharper turns, more ability to go uphill or control descent downhill, more ability to overcome obstacles, etc, than any BB8 build I've ever seen. The challenge? Achieving control when the controls themselves, like the actuators that rotate the gyroscope gimbals, are mounted firmly to the inside of the robot, and therefore constantly rotating with respect to the external frame of reference that informs all the control inputs.
9:30 That kick space could use a good re-caulking to avoid collecting moisture under those nice cabinets. Another awesome proof-of-concept, btw! Kudos!!
Hello James, Big fan here! I think your projects are quite interesting, and I like how you come up with intelligent solutions for the problems you face. However I do think you should challenge yourself in making more robust systems, i.e make your robots with cost to efficiency in mind. I know that your videos are mainly done as a proof of concept, but it would be nice to see you challenge your self in this regard more. Keep up the good work!
James is too good for this world, he needs a company to give him a major break of some kind, give him a grant and a professional team to research just random stuff
that for sure was a WEIRD WHEEL lol - what if you were to use more but smaller flat sections instead of just 6 - it would be smoother and probably less likely to get stuck in that spot that makes it hard to get going.... you could also decrease the size of the teeth and use that rail system you showed at the end. and if you made the circumference of the track bigger it could go over more complex obstacle (i would think) AMAZING!!! I can't wait to see what you come up with next!!! :D
The track jumping the sprocket is caused by the use of bungee cord for the retention cables. Looking at the movie clips you can see that the tractors has chains running on pulleys. The distance between the pulleys vary depending on where in the cycle the track is, but the total length between all three pulleys remains the same or at least very close to it. As the chain can move on the pulleys the tension is constant and the track can't jump the sprocket. Well at least that's what it looks like to me...
It seems like the difficulty there would be that as soon as you lift one leg, it's unbalanced because of the extra mass from the lifted leg on one side of the resulting bipod. What would balance that rotating moment?
That requires some pretty advanced robotics, and some in depth knowledge of how stuff walks, and balances. Especially when there isn’t really a real life reference
@@Nerdule well, that would be the interesting bit. The rotating moment is _not_ balanced but needs to be incorporated into the gait - basically, the tripod keeps falling over to whichever side has the leg in the air, but catches itself in time before toppling over.
Maybe 'V' shaped teeth and a 3d printed V track to receive it so it has constant contact that is stable at all points of rotation of the driving gear? I am just thinking out loud on this. You would still need the camphors on both sides of the gear and maybe even on the track to deal with the torsion when steering. The tracks become complex and hard to machine shapes, but a perfect thing to make by 3d printing. The gear can be made by sandwiching two gears with angled teeth and a camphor on one side on the axel, but could also be completely printed with support material.
If you were to put a mechanism on it so that it could lock the tracks in place (for example an arm that swings down to press on the top of the track when it's got two sections flat on the ground) it seems like that could be a pretty stable platform for a hypothetical robot to do work while stationary. Self-balancing when in motion but able to stop itself and eliminate oscillation when standing still. Though, I guess a deployable kickstand would accomplish that just as well, if not as stylishly.
Really cool. Wondering if it would still balance over an obstacle where one wheel was higher than the other. I’d like to see it traverse outside! With a bottom blade and a camera it could hunt and destroy weeds in the garden!
Robot that uses machine vision system to map the shape of objects. By... Having a hand like structure that has tracing balls on the tips of each finger that the machine vision tracks. Like a mocap suit is tracked.
Tracks are NOT for obstacles. Their purpose is to reduce "Ground PSI" or the amount of pressure the vehicle exerts on the ground by spreading the load over a greater area. They're essentially snowshoes for vehicles. Why is this important? It allows heavier machinery to drive over softer and wetter soils without sinking into the muddy depths.
When you would pull or push it, and it kind of came to a rest at a new location, I imagined a table which you can move around where you want and then have it go rigid when it reaches its destination.
Have you ever thought about trying to implement your own self-tuning PID? Off the top of my head I can think of a system that uses computer vision to analyze the target robot's movements, tweak PID values, and evaluate if the new state is more stable or not. For robots like this one that could easily recover from falling down, it could help you further refine PIDs to near perfection, maybe?
This is awesome! I wonder if you could further solve the balance issues by coming up with a function to describe the nonlinear wobbles of six tracks vs. wheels at certain wheel angles when balancing. It seems like 30° of wheel rotation could describe the balance response curve, that would then just repeat around a full rotation. Maybe the same deal for each sprocket tooth meshing. You've probably already done this, lol, but it's very neat to think about!
Attack track and the dragon walker from masters of the universe toy lines have some unique drive mechanisms that would be interesting to see you adapt.
Looks like a tank track but with just a few really long segments instead of heavily segmented tracks. Cool, I can see how this was seen as an option for a drivetrain. Probably the idea of having less parts so less can go wrong?
I feel like a string instead of a bungee cord might have been better at keeping the tracks from coming off the sprocket. I haven't done the maths but I reckon the triangle formed by the three long screws is a constant perimeter all the way around.
The movement and shape of this reminds me of Wall-e!
YES!
@@postualin6551 it would be great to see what he could do in bringing a Wall-e style robot to life with full animatronic features. Maybe even add some AI/machine learning to it.
wall e.... eva.. wall e... eva. yep just as cute.
@@CraigHissett it would be epic
Same man
Roto ped. Sounds like a tank with fewer steps
When you can only afford 8 tread pieces
Well I like the way that if you lost your track you would still have a good drive system.
You mean rota ped lol
@@glowytheglowbug nope roto as in rototion
@@whatthefunction9140 I don't know if you're mocking James for his British accent or if you failed spelling class
I love how it leans forward right before it starts moving as if gathering momentum, totally reminds me of Wall.e! ♥️♥️
you get that on all single-axle vehicles; check a Segway
@@thekaxmax I don’t really understand it on this robot though. On a Segway the driver intentionally leans forwards. The Segway then tries to “counter” it by speeding up. But what is causing this robot to lean forward and how does it speed up without falling backwards in the first place?
@@Mike-oz4cv TL;DR: it works just like a segway except that the robot 'intentionally leans forwards' by slowly driving the wheels backwards for a moment which tips it forwards. Anything after that point is just like a segway.
Imagine it stands still in perfect balance, requiring no motor corrections. If it wants to start going one way now, it first tips itself out of balance into the direction it wants to go by driving the motors in the opposite direction (think, turning wheels backwards makes robot tip forwards like pulling a carpet under someone). So now that it is in an determined unstable state which wants to escalate (aka "fall over"), the robot can counteract the escalation by rotating the wheels into the tipping direction, so forwards, which converts escess rotative tipping-action into a translative driving-action.
You should try those wheels outside or rough terrain. Will be interesting!
I think I'd prefer it to have four of them and not balance for that!
@@jamesbruton New skateboard idea anyone ? :p
@@jamesbruton It wouldn't be too hard to add 2 more cogs and lengthen the tracks. The new cogs could either freewheel or be added to the belt loop.
@@firefly2472 remote controled powered skate board... or even better add a "floating" platform to stand on and act as a the control stick
@@jamesbruton so perhaps an identical unit and articulated joint and pair them together?
Loved this one, well done
That should be a BulldogBot or a new starwars bot, love it.
Thanks!
another super interesting and quirky mechanism! i love it! this course type of track seems like a really robust traction system for an all terrain robot. i think the way the leading segment pivots down into the ground almost vertically would work well with a hook or spike at the front of each segment, so the robot would claw/pick axe its way along all kinds of obstacles.
Maybe a burrowing robot?
@@jamesbruton good for climbing rocky Martian terrain 👀
@@jamesbruton Hmmm. How would you change the vertical direction you dig in? Lean the robot?
th-cam.com/video/Sj3HwvFWlFk/w-d-xo.html
@@TheNightstalkerShow Oh that's brilliant. I forgot that remote control toy vehicles of the 90's tried to out compete each other on wacky drive mechanisms. There is probably so much good material to try from there.
I’d love to see a 1 leg balancing robot that uses bending joints, weight distribution, and hops to stay balanced.
sounds like something that should be called pogobot 😄
Those metal rulers (@4:50) are the ABSOLUTE BEST!
I think a remote controlled, self balancing, hub-less wheel robot would be cool. Where the electronics are all inbound.
Love your stuff!
this looks like a WALL-E prototype :)
An idea for a robot, making a Mars rover, with proper steering and speed for each wheel, so they follow the ground perfectly. Not super quirky, but super nerdy to make it all work.
good idea
as in like a mini mars rover? that would be sick
Look up Sawppy, or if you have more expensive taste, the JPL open source rover
This would be great in theory for a mars rover. :)
would love to see a fully functional rc mini hot air balloon
As an Oxfordshire lad the tractor element of this project made me happy 👍🚜
I really like how you adapt various ideas found online to make your own version for every other robot. Great job!
Also that robot reminded me of Wall-e...)))
It’s so cute! Wall-E junior!
What an adorable robot. Give it some big eyes on the top and its almost perfect. TBH I think this robot would appreciate a 3rd wheel for stability kind of like an R2D2 setup where the 3rd support can come and go as needed.
This robot has so much personality in its movement :D
Please Please Please do a series of tutorials with different levels of difficulty. I would pay money for a course by you, and there's not a lot of tutorials or courses for this kind of just for fun robotics that isn't pre-made kits. Love these vids so much!!!
It would have been interesting to see this on an incline...
SO MUCH Personality in those wheels! That's down right charming! I can see that thing in a Pixar Movie! ❤️ 🧡 💛 💚 💙 💜
Rotoped, now that's something i've never seen beforre
i have some small magnets which i bought for a project that i play with while i watch videos. if i portioned them into 6 rods, i could move them the way the that this tread moves. i’ve wondered if there was a way to turn it into a tread, and here it is! this channel is so great and always has interesting ideas
You make your projects look so easy. I bet they're not. You're such a pro now.
Seems like it's a standard track linkage but just with a lower number of links. I love it!
Man, I am just a psychiatrist who always dreamed to be a robot builder hobbyst, since my childhood. For years a planned to start studies about robotics, but never had time enough to do that, until now when finally I´ve build a 3d printer. Now I want to start studying robotics, found your channel here , hope I can learn something here!
What an amazing wheel mechanism.
With the drive gear and Hall effect sensor next to each other above the roughly oval track on each side, it looks like drunk twin crabs with big mouths fighting over who is in charge. Very cute bot!
I'd like to see a wheelchair made for the beach using the same principle.
Perhaps a regular wheelchair could be fitted with a collar over each wheel to make them much wider for the beach. Maybe give the collar grooves for traction.
This inspired me to continue my "left in dust" self balancing robot
I don't know how but this wonky little robot somehow seems incredibly adorable!
It's very Wall-E like.
I don't understand how you are able to produce such amazing devices (and content) so quickly. I would think just printing the parts would consume the entire time from one video to the next, let alone any design, construction, prototyping, troubleshooting, video related aspects, etc. The only explanation I can come up with is that years ago you began 3D printing portions of your own body and steadily converting yourself to an android, and now that that's complete, human-James offers himself up in servitude to the greater good.
I really liked this popular video of the jumping robot. That could be a interesting way of movement
I like you making your work OpenSource. Ypu will live forever doing this...
I am following for you for a while now. It's sooo awesome.
It's like you have an engineering degree in all topics. Never saw someone like you, who can actually do some one this stuff.
Engoying your videos. 😁
I wonder if it would work better with a higher tooth count to lessen the resistance changes.
That, and/or two sets of staggered teeth.
That tractor must have pulled in an excellent harvest of limbs. It's a giant crush hazard built of smaller crush hazards!
Weird Wheel Request: Smartwheels from Neal Stephenson's book Snow Crash!
Ooooh someone is about to get a gold play button.
soon
Great job, I think you just created the next Star Wars droid. Has a lot of character. Mahalo for sharing! 🙂🐒
This could spin off into a serious of historic 'continuous track' vehicles. Dreadnought wheels and pedrail wheels are some of the more interesting ones that aren't directly a track drive but operate as one, similar to how rotapeds aren't exactly a continuous track drive in the typical sense but operate as one. Wikipedia would be a good starting place for the lineage that evolved into what we know as caterpillar tracks, though there are designs that exist outside of that lineage, but also somewhat in parallel with the lineage, which is how we eventually had rotapeds.
Another wheel idea: Imagine a wheel with spokes. Now take away the circle (rim), and leave only the spokes, with or without "feet". Now make each spoke telescope independently to drive every type of motion. Perhaps you have done this already. It should be able to hold position, move over obstacles, and climb stairs.
This made me think of NASA's contest for a mechanical design for a Venus rover.
2 Venus missions just got funding. One I believe will be some sort of rover. food for thought.
Thanks again james for the great content. ✌
You used stretchy bungee cords, they used hard chains, the tracks can jump off due to the stretchiness, chains keep it in one place due to it being a fixed length and non changeable. Also add arms and some binocular eyes and make Wall- E
If the controller is aware of the orientation of the sprocket, you might be able to bias it towards the more-stable positions.
Those known-good wheel positions will probably absorb a certain amount of momentum, so if the momentum you're trying to cancel is less than that amount, it's probably best to artificially stop in that position.
An off-road single wheeler would be interesting to see, together solving all of the potential issue to consider - gyros, treads, centre of balance, torque and the terrain it can comfortably travel over. Make and we will watch...
Man that tractor seems like a real easy way to loose a limb :O
really cool though!
Here's an idea: Take a leaf out of the Leopard Geckos' book and create a self balancing, two "wheeled" water walking/running robot!
We have your self balancers for Earth, drones for Air, Fire sounds pretty horrific, but water sounds like it could be done ;)
Definitely not a leopard gecko, but the nicknamed 'jesus lizard' for sure (i don't remember their actual name), would be neat to see a sonic version to run across the water though!
I think it would be fun to recreate old scientific robots. Like robots from 20+ years ago with modern or diy material.
I did not expect that to work as a 2-wheeled self-balancer. Well done.
If you're still into weird wheels, you could make a robot driven completely by gyroscopic precession, whose only moving parts are the internally mounted gyroscopes and the gimbals on which they're mounted. It could be spherical (or whatever other shape, but all others would be less efficient).
The advantage? Torque to drive the thing is not dependent on the action of gravity on a center of mass within the thing. (AKA, limited the torque required to achieve 9.82 m/s^2 acceleration times the sine of the maximum angle by which the center of mass of the robot can be displaced.)
With potentially far higher torque, you get quicker starts and stops, sharper turns, more ability to go uphill or control descent downhill, more ability to overcome obstacles, etc, than any BB8 build I've ever seen.
The challenge? Achieving control when the controls themselves, like the actuators that rotate the gyroscope gimbals, are mounted firmly to the inside of the robot, and therefore constantly rotating with respect to the external frame of reference that informs all the control inputs.
9:30 That kick space could use a good re-caulking to avoid collecting moisture under those nice cabinets.
Another awesome proof-of-concept, btw! Kudos!!
i think this demostrates so well why they where popular for a short time
It looks like wall-e,nice build
Hello James,
Big fan here!
I think your projects are quite interesting, and I like how you come up with intelligent solutions for the problems you face.
However I do think you should challenge yourself in making more robust systems, i.e make your robots with cost to efficiency in mind.
I know that your videos are mainly done as a proof of concept, but it would be nice to see you challenge your self in this regard more.
Keep up the good work!
Please make an all-terrain rover.
Really respect you and your works.
James is too good for this world, he needs a company to give him a major break of some kind, give him a grant and a professional team to research just random stuff
The thing is, he is not inventing anything new. He's manly making his own design of things, others have already invented / solved
it kinda looks like one of those cute mini spiders, the tracks trigger the "spiderlegs" feeling
that for sure was a WEIRD WHEEL lol - what if you were to use more but smaller flat sections instead of just 6 - it would be smoother and probably less likely to get stuck in that spot that makes it hard to get going.... you could also decrease the size of the teeth and use that rail system you showed at the end. and if you made the circumference of the track bigger it could go over more complex obstacle (i would think)
AMAZING!!! I can't wait to see what you come up with next!!! :D
So close to a million subs! Congratulations
The track jumping the sprocket is caused by the use of bungee cord for the retention cables. Looking at the movie clips you can see that the tractors has chains running on pulleys. The distance between the pulleys vary depending on where in the cycle the track is, but the total length between all three pulleys remains the same or at least very close to it. As the chain can move on the pulleys the tension is constant and the track can't jump the sprocket. Well at least that's what it looks like to me...
Imagine a James and code bullet colab. That would be so fun
james plz make an episode of your 3d modeling
Tracks with one wheel... what an interesting idea
If you look at the classic he-man animated series, you're very close to that design..
I've always dreamed of building a walking tripod ala War of the Worlds.
It seems like the difficulty there would be that as soon as you lift one leg, it's unbalanced because of the extra mass from the lifted leg on one side of the resulting bipod. What would balance that rotating moment?
@@Nerdule a gyro or reaction wheel maybe?
@@auden_builds have a hanging ball that balances it.
That requires some pretty advanced robotics, and some in depth knowledge of how stuff walks, and balances. Especially when there isn’t really a real life reference
@@Nerdule well, that would be the interesting bit. The rotating moment is _not_ balanced but needs to be incorporated into the gait - basically, the tripod keeps falling over to whichever side has the leg in the air, but catches itself in time before toppling over.
I really like your idea of calling this the "Wacky Wheels" series :-D
Excellent work as always, your ingenuity and creative content motivates us all!
This us the cutest thing you have made.
This looks like if a tank and and a Segway had a baby. Which is something I would totally buy XD.
A wheelchair using these would look amazing.
Ideas: build a R/C submarine that also works as a powered skateboard. The periscope should give live HD video.
Maybe 'V' shaped teeth and a 3d printed V track to receive it so it has constant contact that is stable at all points of rotation of the driving gear? I am just thinking out loud on this. You would still need the camphors on both sides of the gear and maybe even on the track to deal with the torsion when steering. The tracks become complex and hard to machine shapes, but a perfect thing to make by 3d printing. The gear can be made by sandwiching two gears with angled teeth and a camphor on one side on the axel, but could also be completely printed with support material.
Another amazing video! Always amazing to see your projects, I’m honestly flabbergasted by the rate at which you produce them, keep it up!🙂
I would love to see a large scale version of the single wheel balancing robot, like a chair or skateboard
This (and even moreso the railed version) looks pretty easy to jam up with a few unfortunately-shaped pebbles.
Reminds me of the Thundercats tank tracks. :D
This is great.
Now do the Attack Track from He-Man!
Great video man. I can watch this all day.
If you were to put a mechanism on it so that it could lock the tracks in place (for example an arm that swings down to press on the top of the track when it's got two sections flat on the ground) it seems like that could be a pretty stable platform for a hypothetical robot to do work while stationary. Self-balancing when in motion but able to stop itself and eliminate oscillation when standing still. Though, I guess a deployable kickstand would accomplish that just as well, if not as stylishly.
Really cool. Wondering if it would still balance over an obstacle where one wheel was higher than the other. I’d like to see it traverse outside! With a bottom blade and a camera it could hunt and destroy weeds in the garden!
Robot that uses machine vision system to map the shape of objects. By... Having a hand like structure that has tracing balls on the tips of each finger that the machine vision tracks. Like a mocap suit is tracked.
Tracks are NOT for obstacles. Their purpose is to reduce "Ground PSI" or the amount of pressure the vehicle exerts on the ground by spreading the load over a greater area. They're essentially snowshoes for vehicles. Why is this important? It allows heavier machinery to drive over softer and wetter soils without sinking into the muddy depths.
I believe you just created the blueprints for the safest hover board ever. It could handle huge gaps and not even feel a bump. Please make one.
When you would pull or push it, and it kind of came to a rest at a new location, I imagined a table which you can move around where you want and then have it go rigid when it reaches its destination.
THATS WHY TANK TRACKS ARE CALLED TANK TRACKS!!! They are like train wheels but self laying!!!!
You could make one that runs on just one of these tracks centrally, with an idler on the top of the track pushing it down.
Have you ever thought about trying to implement your own self-tuning PID? Off the top of my head I can think of a system that uses computer vision to analyze the target robot's movements, tweak PID values, and evaluate if the new state is more stable or not. For robots like this one that could easily recover from falling down, it could help you further refine PIDs to near perfection, maybe?
The jerky movement caused by the gear being unstable in the tracks at certain points reminds me somewhat of a strandbeest.
Nice! Looks like a angry cardboard box when moving :)
That's an ideal application for a neural motor control as opposed to PID.
WALL-E!!!
So cute
Great video as always
I think you just outcuted BB8... The movement and body sway is crying out to be a new Star Wars droid.
Damn I really expected to see some dirt action at the end 😅 Always fascinated by the ease you throw stuff together with!
The obvious next level would be to make that thing balance on one of those self laying treads like the one wheel robot. XD
This is awesome! I wonder if you could further solve the balance issues by coming up with a function to describe the nonlinear wobbles of six tracks vs. wheels at certain wheel angles when balancing. It seems like 30° of wheel rotation could describe the balance response curve, that would then just repeat around a full rotation. Maybe the same deal for each sprocket tooth meshing. You've probably already done this, lol, but it's very neat to think about!
I bet it would be more stable if you lowered the center of gravity! Even just moving the battery lower would change the position of the "fulcrum."
You should use two cogs out of phase like a steep railway - then you're always engaged and there's less instability.
To save battery use a servo driven locking pin to lock the body so no balancing needed.
Attack track and the dragon walker from masters of the universe toy lines have some unique drive mechanisms that would be interesting to see you adapt.
Looks like a tank track but with just a few really long segments instead of heavily segmented tracks. Cool, I can see how this was seen as an option for a drivetrain. Probably the idea of having less parts so less can go wrong?
I feel like a string instead of a bungee cord might have been better at keeping the tracks from coming off the sprocket.
I haven't done the maths but I reckon the triangle formed by the three long screws is a constant perimeter all the way around.