Hoeken's Linkage is a truly amazing concept that we can hopefully implement in this year’s robot. Using Auto CAD, we drew out all the pieces needed for assembly of one foot, and then imported them into CamBam. This is a program that turns CAD into usable code for our CNC mill. We are using a three to one ratio with our gears, the large one being attached to a motor. As the large gear rotates clock-wise, the smaller gears rotate counter clock-wise respectively. We plan to have four feet in total, making it quite stable. As the inner feet lift up, the outer feet are sliding the robot forward, and then repeating with the inner feet. Turning will consist of either one side moving forward while the other is moving in reverse, or one side speeding up while the other slows down. As this is still in the experimental stage we are not yet sure if this fantastic design will beat wheels and omni-wheels, although the results are not far away.
This is a .gif from Wikipedia showing Hoeken's Linkage.
Here is a video showing how the simple Hoeken’s Linkage can be used in the building of fascinating machines.
The Auto CAD file before the parts are separately drawn.  These are the parts needed for one leg, minus a second foot which will be milled on a separate sheet of wood.  Using CamBam, we imported the Auto CAD file and drew tool paths for the mill to cut.
Built and edited by Jeremy Reynolds and Nicholas Seward.
"It's not about doing what you can with what you know. It is about doing what you thought impossible, with what you were inspired to learn." ~FIRST Team 1515 |
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