Topic: My newest invention

[kay]

My wife had a stroke and we brought a mobilityscooter for her but when she went to the
 local shopping mall I ether had to run beside her, dawdle along on
a bike, or race ahead with a car.
    So I built a scooter for my self, so now we have great fun scooting
through the local park racing each other

[piersdad]

every one that knows me thinks im just a bit crazy.
the latest invention is a full sized robot that has realistic legs that
mechanically walk and an arm that will raise up and wave to anyone as well the head moves from side to side.

it will fit on the rear of my newest electric scooter and will amble along
behind appearing to be pushing me in the scooter.

controlls on my scooter will enable the robot to react to or  wave to
curious passers by.
hope to have it ready for the next xmas parade in the city

[piersdad]

heres the robot about to pinch my scooter
early days yet  have made a mechanical thing to make it wave one of his hands to passers by
the legs will appear to be pushing the scooter and the robot will be suspended from the rear of the scooter

the robot will be controlled by foot switches on the scooter

[piersdad]

 

this invention has working wings legs and head that talks and is extreemly friendly to kids.
powered by batteries and can not fly  while grownups are looking

[piersdad]

 believe an irish man saw two lepricauns rowing on a lake one morning on st patrics day

one very relieved irish man saw me and a radio transmitter in hand

"begorra am i glad to see you"



Its 36 inches long and 11 inches wide. The men are 11 inches high.
it took me 3 months to work out the exact mechanics of it and the rowing action is very very believable.
The oars are controlled by brass levers from underneath the seats and the mens arms have some 5 hinge points each.
The oars move the arms and at the end of each stroke the arms lock and throw the body back and forth in a random manner.
Each side is controlled by separate motors with foward reverse independantly controlled by radio.
The levers are so adjusted so that the oars go in an elongated elipse that is slightly inclined so that as the oar starts to dip into the water, it pauses slightly, and accelerates swifty after that so that it dips into the water without a splash.
Due to the effort the power stroke is slow and the return stroke is quick

The effect is that if you come across it in a remote pond, and dont see me, then your hair sort of stands up.

It is now 14 years old and has done some 200 km of rowing and surprised a heck of a lot of people.
Even toddlers of 18 months up have looked at them with such interest that im sure they will be thinking thats what i want to have one day and perhaps will become the next generation of robotic makers.


 
[/b]

[piersdad]

just had a rebuild of the robots lower end and all the motor and levers are now situated below his hips leaving all above for more bits and pieces
it was a real mission but the motor and all the levers are set in a compact area and just as a real improvement the forward movement of the leg is faster than the rearward movement as well the lifting of the leg to clear the ground is the oppoisite
ie at the end of the leg movement the levers operating the straightening of the leg speeds up? to make it sort of flick -straight -? into place

the result is an unbelievable realistic leg movement
and a compact gearbox system 200mm by 200mm by 150 mm


pic is of the upper leg and its-- bottom- area
the motor crank upper left pushes and pulls on the leg to give back forward of the leg

off the side of the 'push pull' rod is an attachment that imparts a 90 degree movement to the leg movement and through the lever 'upper right' which hinges on the main leg movement transmits the knee movement down to the knee joint.

the knee joint has a second set of small leavers that impart  movement to the foot
a small leaver yet to be added to operate the knee joint
 but? now so compact it looks like a japanese car motor
Postet at: August 24, 2005, 05:24:33 AManother one

i built this car some 30 years ago and it had features that still not re invented today


and this electric truck was built later
and we went on to make another 7

 


    and my electric  sports car

later converted to a hybrid with a vw motor


Postet at: December 27, 2005, 07:26:10 AMwhen i was developing the small electricl car above it was 1979 and i have just found out that a similar project was designed in america using 3 wheels and a motorbike motor.
as I read the archives of the 3 way car club it had a remarkable parallel to my own eforts and thinking of that time.

free wy car club



Postet at: June 24, 2006, 09:48:10 AMJust been working on this years model of a mobility scooter
finally got the twin transmissions  nearly finished tonight.
the two rear wheels will have a motor on each them and will be attached with spring shock adsorbers.
one of the advantages of the two motors is that no differential is needed and for lower speeds the two motors can be switched in to series with each other and get 12 volts each and half speed a very economical  low speed sysstem  with no power losses.
as well it gives me automatic differential   between th etwo motors os less complications.
this was th esystem i used on th egull winged car from years ago.


Postet at: August 05, 2006, 10:40:22 PMfinally got the 4 wheels on the new  scooter  late last night  put a bit of low power to the wheels .
thats when it shot across the workshop at high speed  

need some brakes next.
with a fine day this afternoon i should be able to get a picture of it and post here
Postet at: August 09, 2006, 08:23:02 AMfirst full trial today
took it to the park and in the middle of the pathway is a depression that normally has to be taken at a slow 3 km/h speed in any scooter or bike.
so gave the new scooter, with its 4 wheel independant suspension, full power and at aprox 20 km p/h run over this 2 inch depression in the sealed path.
well hardly noticed it.
so the suspension is a complete sucess.
next thing is to get some brakes on it, bit scary doing 20 kmph and no brakes,
current draw at the lower cruising speed is less that the normal for this size of mobility scooter so it could get at least 20 plus km range.

Postet at: August 20, 2006, 07:49:22 PM25 august 2006
 front wheels now have a set of caliper brakes on disc's.
i made the  disc's from old chain sprocket and after turning a hub for them i welded and trued them up on th lathe and secured them to the 8 inch wheel barrow
type wheels I brought for the front.
I designed some caliper brakes for these 2 disc's and last night invented a simple cable action that enabled me to work both brakes with an ingenious equalizing devise that give even pressure to both front brakes.

my object of this excessive is partly to make a electric scooter that is fast enough to get some where with out being boringly slow and slow enough to be able to take in the scenery.
a sort of one person golf cart.
so far a great success as it is wonderfully comfortable to drive.

with maintenance in mind
 there are just 6 (easy to get at) nuts to undo and both front and rear wheels with all their  components attached can be removed.
 
i found that at 20 km p h no brakes were a bit scary

noticed just 22 days to develop a entirely new scooter concept.
only add ons and refining to do now

[piersdad]

just sold a mechanical cat on trade me and the buyer was delighted. it is now in an antique shop and the children are alowed to touch it but not anything else.
creats a lot of interest
 here it is on utube

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvyHoWq4V4o" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvyHoWq4V4o</a>
one we boy of 4 wanted to buy it  and when told it was not for sale said
"i want to buy it any way"

[piersdad]

at last years xmas parade the robot appears to be walking along and pushing the scooter and waves to every one.
this year he has remotes for the actions so i can be any where about and he will be able to rteact with the crowd

[piersdad]

some rotten (person) stole my big scooter so i modified the robot so that it had remote controls for the movements and put wheels on it.
thus i could push it along the road and appear as if it was  walking in front of me and waving to the crowd

well the parade this year was great and the public loved it
especially some of the younger boys who wanted to interact with it.
so had a great time and probably inspired a few kids to do some thing more that watch TV



and today again the robot was the center of attention 2009



the robot has 8 channels of radio control.
i used 2 garage door openers with 4 buttons on each so i keep my hands  sort of hidden and operate the robot from sitting away from it.
the transmitters are easily hidden in my hands.
1 /the robot has a wheel chair motor in its bottom that operates the leggs
they walk as if he was treading air.
2/one arm lifts by a large window wiper motor and appears to want to shake hands.
3/ the right hand finger also moves by a VCR tape recorder  motor gears ( the motor that puts the tapes in and out)
and this is hidden in the arm and pulls and pushes the cable in the index finger.
4/the head moves from left to right using part of a cop car flashing light
5/ the head nods in approval  another cop car light motor gearbox
6/ the eyes move from left to right a set of eyes and gear box from some toy
7 /a loud laughter  thing operates  with giggles to ho ho laughs
8 /and in its tummy can be seen a pooh bear soft toy and when some one askes who is operating the robot i turn on a light in his tummy and operate the laughter thing.