i) Yes.
ii) I have spent a lot of time on that one! I racked my brains on trigonometry from school days and did some calculations. The best foot shape is a hollow square or rectangle (because the worst obstacle is one which affects the middle of the foot). Witha hollow foot, the worst hazard is something like a pencil which affects both sides of the foot, and which the robot stands on with the middle of its foot. In that case, my calculations show it should be able to cope with 6mm (a pencil). Larger obstacles will be fine so long as they affect only one side (and because the foot is hollow may miss it entirely). Long grass may be the major hazard, but a hollow foot means that we may have enough weight to crush it. It is a fine balance between leg length (which affects centre of gravity) foot size, weight,and weight distribution. i have even considered attaching the batteries to the lower leg to get the centre of gravity down. If I'm not going to be able to cope with heavy mud, but if I can cope with say a football pitchthen I'll be content.
iii) My intention is that he should have a spring-loaded right arm, so that he can fire overarm like a cricketer. That means the recoil creates a rotational moment (ie twisting force) rather than a straight backwards recoil which should be easier to adsorb. At all events, the forces will not be as powerful as you get with a paintball gun. i would expect to set it to a range of about 10m (60m to scale). I'm not quite sure how much range you can get on a grenade, but the world record for the javelin is around 100m, so 10m would seem manageable if we are trying to be reasonably authentic. I need to do some experiments with this- I need enough force to burst the paintball, of course. If he falls over too often then I'll a) ditch the rifle and substitute a moving left arm to balance the forces (this is what you do when you throw something) b) use a "rifle grenade" fired from the waist- less problem than from the shoulder or c) Think about some sort of recoilless system- like a bazooka. i had an idea of using water/air like one of those rockets you pump up with your foot...
As you can see, there's a lot of experimenting to be done. I'm looking forward to that!
yer ,very clever, like that.but:-
i, will he fire paint?
ii, what happens if he walks on a stone?
iii, if an incoming paintball knocks him over, then (as you`ll know from what
Newton say`s about equal and opposite force`s)he will fall over when he fires
one.
If you can overcome these points then good on you.
> From: strangebut-at-aol.com
> Date: 2007/02/10 Sat PM 03:54:48 GMT
> To: tanks-at-rctankcombat.com
> Subject: Infantry marching closer [TANKS]
>
>
> View full size Neroc wanted photos- this is my revised test rig for a walking
robot. Note the Knee Technology. This serves to keep the foot horizontal at all
times. Seems relatively stable- I've just ordered a motor and some bits to make
a full size (ie 1/6th) version.
>
>
> Watch this space...
>
> Phil The Optimistic
>
>
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