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Everyone makes a Mindstorms robot that drives forward until it hits an obstacle,
then reverses and turns for a short distance before resuming its forward motion.
Here is a robot that does the same by 100% mechanical methods. It has only one
motor, which always turns in the same direction, and there are no electronic
components. At first I wasn't sure if this would be possible or practical, but
it actually works quite nicely.
http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?m=aeh
http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/aeh/Obstacle/movie/obstacle.avi
http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/aeh/Obstacle/ldraw/obstacle.ldr
The most difficult part was making it reverse for a set distance. When it is
reversing, a pivoting arm moving with the drive wheel presses against an axle
and pushes it against a rotating worm gear, causing the axle to slowly retract
until it is out of the way of the arm, then the robot can resume driving
forward. (Probably the only way to make sense of this explanation is to try
building it!)
For the next challenge, how about a skid-steer version or a pneumatic
version...?
cheers, Alexander
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Interesting little device, reminds me this one:
http://www.ben.com/LEGO/rcx/rock-stupid.html
But in terms of mechanical IQ, yours is far ahead...
> (Probably the only way to make sense of this explanation is to try
> building it!)
Probably indeed ;o)
Philo
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You are awesome. I had read about this in some lego paper about gearboxes,
specifically shiftable ones. It said the problem was keeping the car in reverse
for a while instead of jittering back and forth.
Now I -really- want to get into the mechanichal logic lego gates thing
(http://goldfish.ikaruga.co.uk/logic.html), but in a design different from the
example (I think it'd be hard to amplify the signal after a few gates). Although
harder, it'd be neat to do it, like the site mentions, with rotation of an axle,
clockwise being a logic level and counterclockwise being the other.
Too bad these things take lots of legos...
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Thanks Ignacio and Philo for the nice comments! I hadn't seen "Rock Stupid
Rover" - very interesting.
The idea of "mechanical computing" is fascinating. Some kind of signal
amplification using a power source seems essential if one is to make complex
circuits. Pneumatics provide one way to do this - a mechanical way would be
very nice...
Alexander
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