DPRG mailing list archives: [DPRG] Re: DPRGlist Digest, Vol 44, Issue 14 BristleBot again

Sun Jan 13 13:14:08 CST 2008

DeltaGraph at aol.com said: Sunday, January 13, 2008 12:57 PM
> I was wondering if pager counter weight could act as a 
> cam to more directly influence a "leg foot".

I have several solar project kits I've built to get some
background on operations. They all seem to use the same motor,
basically a little pager motor, but some have pinions to slide
on the shaft rather than the offset weight. The direct drive
ones go nicely of course, but not as fast as I expect as
efficiently as the bristle bots. There's something terribly
interesting about the locomotion of something almost "floating",
and then just the occassional interaction between touching down
with a glancing blow to give motion.

A derivative I've thought of is using an off centered arm from a
wheel (like the locomotive drive shaft) to a flexible bristle,
angled back to shove against the ground when lengthening and
retract to cycle. With two out of phase, you always have one of
the bristles pushing "back" while the other is withdrawn. I'd
bet you could make a direct coupled "slider" that way, taking
the principle to many bristles. (I believe such a thing might be
called an "isopod" biologically.) But the mechanics of hooking
the bristles to the rotating head might outweigh the gains, when
mere inertia can be called on to do the coupling.

Randy
www.newmicros.com