Robot Android Version 1.0

One day in the summer of the tenth grade I finally just got tired of human beings and decided that the logical course of action would be to BUILD a robot that would possess all the attributes and qualities I wanted and that would lack all those humans seemed to have an abundance of (the ones that were getting on my nerves). Unfortunately I was quite young at the time (tenth grade, give me a break) and I was flat broke. Aluminum sheets and tubes for the body, high quality ball joints for the connections, a spare computer for the brain? unfortunately not. I was stuck with a pile of wood, a hand saw, some electrical tape, PVC pipes, a sheet of thin foam (from a camping set) and my primitive imagination. So, I did what any engineer would do in the situation, first cry a little about my misgivings, then improvise until the original dream of a walking/talking/super-human android was finally twisted and distorted by so many shortcuts that the final product was something entirely different.

So, with the materials listed and a hefty supply of super strength wood glue I constructed what you see below, my robot android (version 1.0).

Structural Components:

Abdomen:
The core of the lower half of the robot. This piece joins the legs to the rest of the body and has to allow the legs to remain solid and stable while being able to rotate. Futhermore it has to be able to withstand the most force due to its position in the body.




I was aiming to imitate a rough shape of the human abdomen, hence I avoided the perfect square at ALL COSTS. However, cutting wood accurately with a hand saw (and making replica's for two sides) is quite hard and so I ended up producing something more angular than what I wanted, but it worked nicely as you can see. All the wood pieces were attached with wood glue. In total the abdomen consists of 4 major wooden sections.



To connect the abdomen to the two legs I used PVC pipes. Attaching these pipes so that they were 100% secured to my liking was difficult. I ended up making two holes in the sides of the abdomen (the wooden sheets), sliding the PVC pipe through and gluing some AOL CD's (good for anything but installing on your computer) to them, finally I added an extra layer of wood around the pipe on the external sides. This produced such a secure connection that I was thoroughly impressed and I recommend this technique to anyone in need of a quick fix and in a similar situation.



LEGS:

The leg design is broken into 3 main components. The hips or thighs that connects the legs to the abdomen, the leg shafts consisting of the knee joint, and the feet.

HIPS:

The hips are probably the most sturdy component of the design due to the large amount of wood I had to use. The main function of the hips is to connect the shaft of the legs to the abdomen and must allow rotation along two axis' in two different locations, hence the large amount of wood used. To allow rotation of the tubes inside the body of the hips I used a simple design like that shown below:



The final product was wrapped in a layer of foam, not because I was worried about the robot getting damaged, but anything else that happened to bump into it (the edges were sharp).



LEG SHAFT:

The main portion of the leg and consisting of the knee joint. I used PVC pipes for the legs and a simple door hinge for the knee joint. The pipe was cut in half (near where the knee would be) and the hinge was screwed into both sections of the pipe, effectively joining them together. The basic design is shown below:


I added a layer of foam in between the connection of the two pipes (at the knee joint) so that when it opened/closed it wouldn't make a *snapping* sound or damage the pipes. The finished product is seen here.



Feet:

The feet were constructed out of wood. I had to design something that looked slightly foot-like yet also connected to the leg shaft (allowing it to rotate well) solidly enough to support the rest of the body. Furthermore the feet had to have enough contact surface area (and in the right places) so that the body would not just fall down all the time. The final design is somewhat crude but it satisfied all the above criteria to my satisfaction. Here they are.



Completed Legs:

Here are all the leg components connected (hips, leg shaft, feet).



The Final Product:

So it turned out that I could only complete the lower half of my robot that summer (this is due to various reasons, number 1 being that I ran out of wood, glue, and money to buy more of just that). However I believe that the lower half was the more interesting and challenging half to build. When I first completed the project I was quite happy with myself (its a robot!) however now that I look at it years later I cant help but notice the lack of FUNCTION. However it was still a useful project because it helped me understand the mechanics of the lower half of a biped (distribution of weight, joints, the works). Furthermore I now have a greater appreciation for glue, wood, PVC pipes and an imagination lacking money. Don't give up just because you cant afford all the electronic "jazz" (motors, sensors, circuits) work with what you have and see where it takes you. I now present the final form of my Robot Android version 1.0 (standing, sitting and rockin all by itself).