HTMAA 2024
Sergio Mutis
Week 00
Final Project Dev

References
&
Interests

Labirynths
(e.g. M.C. Escher)

Social Insects
(e.g. Ant Bridge, Lutz 2015)

Distributed Robotic Assembly
(e.g. CBA)

Artificial Life
Conway's Game of Life Simulation
(e.g. simulation by me)

Useless Machine
(e.g. Gear doesn’t matter)

Final Project Idea:
A robot that continuously assembles a maze, while another tries to solve it, in an endless, pointless loop.

IDEATION

Spiral 1
Modular Wheel Bots
Bodyplan

Spiral 1

Spider Bot
Bodyplan

To take a look at this study in detail,

click here

Spiral 1

Spider Bot
Behaviours

To take a look at this study in detail,

click here

Explain Coding Process / Pipeline

Spiral 2

Grippers & Voxels

A - Flat Gripper

This first system has two motors controlling each side of a flat gripper, allowing them to hold an object. Yet, it does not have any level of error-correction. They spider might be off and the grip might not be the best. Also, objects might slip in the flat surfaces.

B - Lock Gripper

Ths version features 2 teeth that do into the geomtry, ensuring a more secure grip. The holes are larger than the actual teeth, facilitating the initial entry, but it is, perhaps, a little too precise.

C - Angled Gripper

This version goes into the geometry it holds, using the same error-correction thorugh geomtry concept off the base. This allows for more forgiving alignment and provides a solid grip.

Next Steps Spiral 2

1. Leg redesign.

2. Raspberry Pi Comms

3. PCB & Integration

4. Behavior Programming

Assembly
Material Components

Sub-Spiral 1

The initial idea, was to build simple assemblies of block with error-correction via geometry.

To take a look at the initial exploration with casting,

click here

Spiral 2

'Underactuation' Study

Then, I also tried manually pressure-casting molding clay into the block shape, which broke the mold. Regardless, I like the material qualities and I am interested in multi-material assemblies either way.

As I was preparing to bring together every new aspect into the second prototype, thinking about reducing complexity, I decided to assemble some of the parts I already had and see if the spider could behave properly with 4 less servos.