This week, I started with a huge hunk of wood that weighed 400 grams. We realized that this was not going to work as the robot struggled and screamed trying to move the mass. Thus, Mr. Bahn and I went to the woodshop and took as much unnecessary wood off as possible. This got the mass down to 250 grams, which wasn’t terrible, but was still a little difficult to move. Below is a picture of the streamlined body.

After noticing that this still wasn’t quite working, we realized that another material may be needed. We had a block of insulation foam that we had been using to avoid sitting on the cold floor while working, so Mr. Bahn decided it was a good idea to re-purpose the foam into a new body. After doing so, the new body weighs 27 grams, and the robot was able to move happily along at 0.02 MPH. We also made a stand up and lay down function that slowly bring the robot up from a stationary position. Our goal by the end of the day was to get it going 10 times faster at least. First, we changed the order of the legs to change the way weight is shifted as legs move. This helped a good amount to get a stable walk. After changing variables slowly and singularly, we eventually got the robot to walk at 0.12 MPH. Unfortunately, one of the knee servos decided to call it quits and we were not able to do any further testing. Below is a picture of the current body with all electronics and servos.

Moving forward, I hope to work over the summer. I would like to present my project at MakerFair, and I want it to be better than it is right now. My first goal will be to remake the legs, but fit a new knee servo since the knee is always the failure point. I think I have begun to push the limit of size, and I would like to see how far I can go.