Subject:
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Re: Problem with auto-steering mechanism.
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.robotics
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Date:
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Fri, 25 Oct 2002 21:45:57 GMT
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Viewed:
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669 times
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May I give it a go?.....
I'm not exactly sure of the Toy you speak of, Hmmm.
I also have seen a Toy that does this.
I brought a gift from Zany Brainy for my Friends Son's Birthday.
The thing was neat! It was a Clear Ball and had a little I think, Mickey
Mouse in the center. It was mounted on the Horizontal axis by a axle inside
the ball.
When the Ball would roll around on the floor and entcounter an obstacle,
Mickey would flip around and the Ball would change directions.
I figured that the Battery operated Motor in the center not only acts as a
weight, but that the whole mechanism was essentially a Gyroscope and due to
the fact that the center axis appeared to operate on a limited slip diff, or
and I noticed that the center axis would only rotate in one direction.
The toy really worked well because when it bumped into something, the only
thing driving it's inherent steering intelligence was Gravity and the
relation of the axle only rotating in one direction.
When resistance occured, the motion from the one motor output flips it's own
chasis over and continues driving the outer Ball rotation when the cause of
the resistance no longer was causing the internal diff to kick in. That's
how Mickey Flips over and continues in a new direction.
(I don't know if I said that right, but believe me it was cool!)
The thing would roll around the room for hours until it ends up at the
lowest point in the room. It occured to me that as novel as the toy was it
was great for finding the low point in a room! Same thing could happen with
a Robot if Gravity was some how a factor in the auto drive funtion.
ANYWAY......
What I see here in your prototype is remarkably simular. Dang it's really cool.
Check this out. Perhaps something in this could provide a solution. In so
much as the axle you have going down to the diff, could somehow be used to
connect the motor and dare I say "gyroscope" Trick is to have one of the
axles "lock" when freewheeling forward so as to push your robot along. Then
when it entounters resistance, the stall throws the motor to into a search
for the next available resistance free path by flipping over the entire
drive train.
That may be able to site above the Turn Table. It essentially translates to
either forward and reverse motion. And all that is dictating the current
rotation or Direction of the Robot is the resistance of the internal diff
that only allows one direction of rotation. It doesn't care which diection
it goes, The wheels will always go in only one direction because it's the
orientation of the Drive at the top of the of the wheels that matters as it
sits on the middle of the gyro.
Oh, like when you strap into one of those big Gyro amusement ride things,
You get into the inner frame in only one direction right? But you can be
fliped around in all the other planes. The inner rings can spin almost
completely in any direction but lock together at certain points so that the
rings can act together along with the centifical force.
Wow! Well this was fun to write anyway.....Dinner is ready gotta go!
Good Luck
Legomaster
www.mylegomaster.com
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Message is in Reply To:
 | | Problem with auto-steering mechanism.
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| I've been trying to build a mechanism I remember seeing on a kids toy. What I'm thinking of is a vehicle with two un-driven wheels at the back and two wheels at the front that are mounted on a turntable such that they normally pull the vehicle (...) (22 years ago, 25-Oct-02, to lugnet.robotics)
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