Our original idea was to imitate the horse’s gait of normal trot. In this motion, the horse always keeps only 2 hoofs of opposite sides and locations on the ground.
Andres came up with the idea that looks. I prototyped with iron wires and paper tape, connecting them onto the motor to try the mechanism. It seemed to be working. Therefore, we took a leap to laser cut the pattern.
This is the laser cut version. The “animal” seems to be progressing aggressively and disorderedly. Now it looks more like lizard’s jumping on the water.
Prof. Rudi suggested that we could make a curve at the joint of the leg and the hoof to create a more smooth motion. We chose another path: to decrease the fraction of the hoof touching the ground, adding foam to each leg. Now the motion seemed to be of more grace.
The final version:
Improvements could be: 1)Use elastic material for the hoofs to create a more flexible motion. 2)Instead of starting with a “+” that looks more like a wheel, start with “X” that actually resemble the horse’s gait of normal trot.
Reflection: 1)The biggest problem was to communicate and cooperate with my partner. We both stuck with our own ideas and were reluctant to give up. Prof. Rudi came up and helped us make the decision of choosing the locomotion to prototype. Among the 3 labs, I didn’t manage to put forward my idea by talking, but only by doing my work. This needs to be improved. 2)I actually had no idea how to assemble and create wheelwork. Teamwork saves the world.