With Ryan Huffnagle

What is this 3 Week Challenge?

We want to design a self balancing robot that is inherently unstable and falls immediatelyif released with no power. No gyro wheel is allowed, so it has to be a dynamic system with some sort of PID controller.

Let’s Get Started

Week 1: CAD and Mockup

First question was what sort of device we wanted to make and what would be a good type of motor for the application.

We went for a 2 wheeled robot with a geared DC Motor to allow us to simplify the motion. Since we wanted the power more so than the finite control of a Stepper, we want with the DC motor that can react quickly and help us balance dynamically.

Where does this funky design come from

I brought my love for automotive into this design by taking inspiration from the Alfa Romeo 4C.

I started with getting inspired with the wheels and cading my version of the wheels.

Initial CAD

I wanted to design something sleek that holds on to the accessories and secured the,

• Components I needed to fit in the body

Some Closeup of key features in the design

First initial week was cading and the following second week was building a first prototype.

Week 2 time to start building

I designed the robot to be mostly built out of laser cut acrylic to speed up fabrication.

I designed a removable bar to hold onto the breadboard to keep it secure with the dynamic motion.

The only 3D printed part was the shaft

I wanted to be able to attach a spur gear on the shaft and directly screw the wheels in using heated inserts.

I tripped the gear set to help keep the motor in constant contact, since the shade can slide slightly from left to right.

I glues rubber bands onto the acrylic wheels to help with traction

Both batteries are enclosed with cutout for port access.

What needs improvement?

The 3D printed Shaft broke and with the construction style it was not swappable, with a bulbous part in the middle that does not allow it to slide out, so needed to fix that in cad.