Mechanical Design

Although the initial proposal for the project was to develop a 3D printing head for clay/ceramics, there have been some issues, particularly in terms of time management/availability; therefore, I'll report here another project that I have developed and where many of the tools covered in the FabAcademy have been used: A hexapod robot called Cyclops.

 
The design of its structure went through several revisions but was always based on similar concepts: 1. each leg should have two degrees of freedom, and 2. the servomotors used should also play a structural function, minimizing the overall size of the hexapod.

The first attempt achieved the simplicity and compactness but the motors were inadequate for the load that the robot required. A photo of the early design can be seen below next to the model in Solid works.

 

 

Despite having a fairly simple and compact design, the motors had a lot of problems maintaining the standing position, and it was noted that most of the range of motion of each servo was being wasted because each articulation of the leg did not move the 180 degrees which is roughly the range of motion of the servo. Gears were used to provide more force in each leg while maintaining an acceptable range of motion.

This new version was completed according to those objectives chosen. An explosion view of the final assembly can be seen below.