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Subject: 
Tri-star wheels [was: Re: [Woefully off topic] Feel the .sig Luke...]
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.robotics
Date: 
Fri, 3 Mar 2000 03:53:36 GMT
Viewed: 
825 times
  
in article 85256896.00771B64.00@aamta02.avid.com, lego-robotics@crynwr.com
at lego-robotics@crynwr.com wrote on 3/2/00 1:38 PM:


I'm thinking about how to design a machine that can climb real-live household
stairs - as
well as move about flat surfaces. I've seen designs for robots that can climb
obstacles, but
not as big as a step. I'm thinking of something along the lines of a six
wheeled
robot.
Two Y shaped ferris wheel thingys with a wheel at the end of each spoke (two
wheels in
contact with the ground at any one time). When the robot detects a stair or
obstacle, it
could shift its weight and rotate the Y forward. Has anyone seen anything like
this ?

Critically, I think the centre of gravity must be higher than the step for
this
to work.

bad ascii art:

1    O         2 O         3  O
     |            \           |
     O   ___       O--O       O
    / \ |          | ___     / \
   O   O|          O|       O   O
robot   obstacle          -------

-Simon



Actually, that's a very nice piece of ascii art describing something called
the tri-star wheel.  I saw my first example of this on a vehicle from a
cheesy movie called "Damnation Alley", adapted from a story by Roger
Zelazny.  The vehicle was real (except for the missile launcher :).  It
steered by bending in the middle, and at one point was seen crossing a lake
- the tri-star wheels acted like paddlewheels.

I've been interested in building one for some time but have never actually
sat down and tried it yet.  My current robot project has four-wheel drive
and steers by bending in the middle, so if I just stick tri-star wheels on
it....

I also recall seeing a baby stroller with tri-star wheels.  You could just
roll it right over curbs and the like.

There were a couple of web sites that discussed creating tri-star wheels
using Lego, but they both seem to be gone and I can't find where they might
have gone.  Wait...  there's one of them!

http://www.visi.com/~dc/

Hope this helps,

Doug

--
Doug Weathers, http://www.rdrop.com/~dougw
Portland, Oregon, USA
Don't spam me - I know how to use http://www.spamcop.net
"On a clear disk you can seek forever"



Message has 1 Reply:
  Re: Tri-star wheels [was: Re: [Woefully off topic] Feel the .sig Luke...]
 
I briefly experimented with a stair-sized tri-star wheel. I discovered it would take a lot of power and a lot of Legos to make it work (the Tri-wheel radius must be greater or equal to the height of the stair's riser plus the radius of each tyre and (...) (25 years ago, 3-Mar-00, to lugnet.robotics)

Message is in Reply To:
  [Woefully off topic] Feel the .sig Luke...
 
(Not a flame, troll or even a complaint !) (...) Perhaps I am showing my age, but I remember a time whe there was a usenet 'rule' that you should never make a post where the content is shorter than your .sig ;-). There was another 'rule' that let (...) (25 years ago, 2-Mar-00, to lugnet.robotics)

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