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UFO JOE: The First Steps

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  3D Printed Chassis and Walking Mechanism After receiving all the mechanical parts from ServoCity and 3D printing the chassis and legs I was ready to finally test the theory behind UFO JOE.  If this walking mechanism worked it would mean that I could finally start to properly design the full body spinner.  Now this wouldn't be a perfect demonstration of the walking mechanism, as the drive motor needs to be exchanged for a brushless system, and the front and back legs need to be linked with pullies.  I will go over how these affected the walking later in the post.  For more details on the walking mechanism check out  my last post  on UFO JOE. UFO JOE Takes It's First Steps In the video you can see that the mechanism worked... mostly .  This aspect of the drive is only meant to move the robot forwards and backwards, and that works almost  perfectly.  While it may appear slow, the speed of the walking isn't the focus, the torque is.  By heavily gearing down the motors used, s
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UFO JOE: Walker Mechanism CAD

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  Isometric view of the walker The first step in the creation of UFO JOE is complete, the CAD for the walking mechanism.  This aspect of the robot is the most mechanically complex design I've ever made, though each bit of complexity is vital in helping UFO JOE take its first steps.  It came with a variety of design challenges that I hopefully was able to overcome in order to create the lightest walking platform that could perform at the beetleweight level.     Walking robot by Raptor Robotics The first piece of inspiration I got for UFO JOE was a video uploaded by Raptor Robotics which showed off the simplest walking mechanism that I had seen before.  In order for UFO JOE to be able to reach its intended weight while still being rigid enough to survive its own kinetic energy transfers I needed to find a walking mechanism that was relatively simple.  This basic mechanism was what I needed, though it did need to be modified for use in UFO JOE.     Top view of the walker w/o chassis c
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UFO JOE: How much kinetic energy can be generated?

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Background: Ever since my first modified  Fingertech wedge kit had it's poorly designed wedge ripped off in a very one sided finals match I've wanted to design a robot that generated as much kinetic energy as feasibly possible.  Inspired by the idea that I could design something like Deep Six on my first attempt I put together Vertical Spinner Prototype, a robot that tore itself to shreds the second it made contact with metal. Vertical Spinner Prototype Moving on to a more stable build, Pulsar was designed to be a much more compact and controllable version of VSP.  Focusing more on a Witch Doctor-esque structure, Pulsar was a lot more mechanically stable, and was able to deliver hits that I hoped VSP would be able to manage.  This has made it my main robot, and it's been relatively successful at events. Pulsar v. Werewolf  Most recently, I've tried my hand at a horizontal spinner, hoping that I could avoid the annoying forces that often leave me slamming Pulsar into w
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Welcome To The Lemon Gang Robotics Blog

Hello!  My name is Alek and I am the captain of the Lemon Gang Combat Robotics team.  I've been participating in combat robotics for over a year, and I wanted somewhere to host event recaps, robot construction details, and anything else related to the hobby.  That's where this blog comes in!  I hope to use it to detail my creative process in the realm of combat robotics and beyond. The next couple months of this blog will mainly focus on the construction of a fifteen pound flame throwing lemon, so make sure you stay tuned.
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