MYKL,
You don’t have to call me Sir, Just call me Mike. 
I understand more about your design since you mentioned balsa wood with cloth hinges. In the photo, it was hard to tell how the individual links were attached.
I agree, prototyping is a good smart way to try new designs before dumping a bunch of money to find out later that the design does not work. I have been guilty of this on a few of my projects.
Mike,
I will probably be making any permanant grippers out of Alumalite. I will design the parts in Solidworks and have them printed in wax by a friend. I’ll make a mold from the wax models and cast the part using Alumalite.
My goal is to try to avoid any metal parts if I can.
I’m a big fan of metal, but weight is the worst enemy.
Have you seen my bot head machined out of aluminum?
Mike,
If you are refering to the one that looks like C3PO’s skull I have seen it and am much impressed by it. The machinist must be quite talented. I will use metal as a last resort in most of my work. I’m sure that as my projects get bigger and the stresses on the frames increase I’ll have to move on to stronger materials. Even then there are fiber composites that are strong enough to serve while being light enough to move with less power requirements. Look at all of the high end cars. Mostly honeycombed aluminum and composite construction.
When you finish a smaller hand, take some pictures. I would love to see it.
As you wish…
I’ll do it tonight.
If I am able, I’ll get a short video of it to post sometime too.
I’m getting my controller monday so I may wait to do a video untill I have a servo actuated version…
Sounds good!
I’m going to try to find the time to finish drawing up my first 'bot this weeks end. I hope to have a rendering to post here. I don’t know if I’ll include the little grippers on my first project or not…
I would like to be able to but I don’t think I’ll be able to afford the higher quality servos that could carry around the extra weight involved.
We’ll see…
Hello,
I need a favour from one of you Robonova owners. I want to make a final model of my hand/gripper set up but I don’t own one of these fine units so I can’t really get an idea for what scale to make them Or how it mounts to the existing hardware. If one of you could provide dimensions or better yet a 3D model of one of the arm assemblies including the little plastic fists that are sent with the kits I’d be willing to GIVE you a set of the grippers (Sans Servos unless you provide them).
I plan on modeling them up and haveing the mold for the mold printed up on a rapid protoyping machine my friend uses for his business. Then I will be able to produce a mold that will produce many little hands for the betterment of all the little Bipeds…
Why not just use a standard servo case as a scale reference. It’s ok if the hand is slightly larger or smaller but as long as it is about the size of a standard servo, you should be ok. I modeled my aluminum bot head based on the size of the standard servo and it works perfect.
Just a thought.
Sam (Uh, Mike…^_^) Yeah Mike,
I’ve already started on it. Based upon the cross-sectional area of a standard servo. It’s taking forever (it seems) to finish because I am in the middle of a move and have started learning Chinese.
My first proof of concept piece is constructed out of fairly light syrene plastic. It is suprisingly strong for it weight. The servos in this first version are cheap little micros that deliver about 12oz/in torque. They would lokk really nice in Aluminum but I have niether the time of the resources ATM for that level of manufacturing.
Your skull is a thing of beauty by the way…
Thanks!
I think you ment to say Mike instead of Sam.
I’m looking forward to your hand design because I want to use it for my biped project. Glad you are using lightweight materials because weight adds up much faster than I thought. Aluminum probably is not a pratical material.
Cant wait to see your new design.
You know, I have drawn up designs for entire arm and leg units. I’d like to see someone with the skills to control them utilize my mechanical/structural ideas.
I am a NOOB as far as electronics but my mechanical experience will produce some very fun 'bots. I just don’t have the resources/time to fully realize my ideas yet…
You said you have arm and leg designs? I would like to see them. PM them to me.
The leg and arm designs are based on a new actuator system I am working on.
I’ll send you some images as soon as I create some.
They are heavily biomimetic…
Hello Friends,
Its been awhile. I have been lurking but not posting. I have finished a more compact prototype for my Hand project. The next step is to draw up the parts for producing a mold so that I can cast the pieces in a very light material. Also I have waited until I had a base unit to display my wares upon and I was just able to purchase my very own Robonova-1 for the modest price of $750.00. This means that I shall be spending a bit more time with you all and that I will post images of the Metamorphasis of my very own robotic competitor.
The following images were created here at work using my cellular phone so they are of barely acceptable quality.
Please leave your thoughts. I do so enjoy them. I will be blessing my machine with dexterity as soon as I’ve modeld up the arms and adjusted the parimeters of my created hands to the point that I feel they are asthetically and mechanically sound.
Pictures first:
i225.photobucket.com/albums/dd10 … 8_1006.jpg
i225.photobucket.com/albums/dd10 … 8_1007.jpg
And the worlds crappiest upside down video:
s225.photobucket.com/albums/dd10 … 8_1011.flv
You will notice the most remarkable change has been the reduction in size…
Very nice movement of the hands. They seem to have a good elasticity so they will move well. Nice job!
Thank you!
The final version will be made with more appropriate materials boosting strength, resopnse time and, of course, looks.
The one I put on my Robonova will probably resemble something from Patlabor, Gundam, Appleseed… I am very inspired by the Japanese Mecha Genre.
Very nice! You are like the only one that has been developing miniature hands. I thought you and your project were history, lost forever.
Do you have rubber around the fingers? I think it would be great to see the joints personally; it would look more robotic looking. Right now, the fingers look like little hot dogs.
Question:
A servo can make all the fingers move, but how do you plan to move individual fingers?
Deep Bow
Thanks for the Kudos.
This hand is so diminunative that I was able to use the type of balloons that entertainers use to twist into animals to skin the phalanges. The final version will be assembled from peices that are cast in a mold to more resemble a robotic hand. The unit I develop for Robonova will be more stout looking. I plan on, though, developing an entire upper body with elegantly sculped features that are much more anthropomorphic and biomemetic than are currently produced. I’d like to see the arena of bot combat take a turn for realism. I plan on giving my Robonova the capabilty to draw a weapon and use it. How fun would that be? Lay some weapons about the area (Warhammers, poles, axes, swords, shields, etc…) and give the combatants a skin that can take some visable damage…
I think it would be a lot more fun to watch.
I want the user to be able to decide how many fingers they’d wish to move. You could move them all with one servo or you could move each seperatly with five. I will probably use one initially but if I go to a show with it I’ll prolly group the thumb, ring and pinky together and the middle and the point fingers will have independant servos (3 servos).
I will post the hand on my bot as soon as I’m finished with it. I’m sure you will like it.
