Today’s inspiration comes from outside the Tindie universe, via the “Meed” robot, which is currently in development by Pollen Robotics. The prototype is made in such a way that they hope to quickly iterate the designs, and invite people to comment on what they like or dislike about it.
What I thought was especially interesting, and perhaps inspirational for those interested in selling their own robots, was it’s double-servo leg system shown at 1:45 in the video below. These two servos, using additional linkages reminiscent of a scissor lift, allow it to place the ends of its appendages in a wide variety of positions.
Besides this vertical leg configuration, this type of setup could also be applied in a horizontal plane to make a robotic arm. This could move a gripper or other tool around, similar to a gantry or SCARA robot system. In fact, the principle is reminiscent of how a polar plotter works, one of which was featured here recently.
Even though Tindie has quite a few robots available, I don’t think I’ve seen any using this particular kinematic configuration. Perhaps it could be inspiration for your next ‘bot!
