Techno-Saurus: developing 3D printed robot dinosaurs
The overall idea of this project is to rework the original “Robokiller”design to have 3D printable components and then make it available as a kit
Quite a few years ago (too many to admit to)……I had an idea for a model dinosaur that could be controlled by master-slave finger control: the movements of your fingers would be mapped to the actuated legs to allow for lifelike walking, as shown in the sketch below.
The controller above features ‘master’ legs with sensors at the joints which are moved in a lifelike way by the operators fingers. The signals are transmitted to the walking robot and the powered ‘slave’ legs mimic the master legs by ‘position’ control.
The flaw with this was that it was too complicated. I still think it would work and would be fun to use!
So, to improve things, I did some experiments, massively reduced the complexity of the walking mechanism and added a lunging biting head, neck and jaws and the ‘Robokiller‘ was born…
Here is a brief video of the construction of a Robokiller and then two are shown fighting….
Robokiller
Many versions have been developed by hand over the years (i.e., not using CAD). The last three to be made before switching to 3D modelling and printing are featured on this site:
So what we are now calling the ‘Techno-Saurus’ is basically a 3D printed Robokiller.
Areas for development….
As mentioned above, the overall idea is to rework the present design and then to have 3D printable components and eventually make it available as a kit.
Thanks for reading!