About
Spider-4 is classified under my line of recon robots, IAMLR. Independently Articulated Multi Limbed Rover. When this project began, I simply wanted to make another rover because of my infatuations with
Curiosity, the latest Mars robot. But due to recent developments in asteroid mining, and the amounts of time, money, and brain power being dropped into that area of research, I've decided to re-purpose this project for that mission. So now Spider-4 is being designed for extraterrestrial heavy-metal isolation and collection.
Since I know nothing of mining, that portion will be handled by a friend of mine actually in the mineral extraction business, hence this project will be classified as an Extraterrestrial Mining Collaboration.
Preliminary Design: (9-2-11)
Here are some of the original designs and definitions I came up with just prior to building, It's nice to have a plan when you're building, but I always seem to deviate no mater how detailed my plans are.
The initial intent for this robot was simply to climb over platforms, but now that I have a specific mission in mind, many modifications are taking place on the fly.
Frame Phase 1: (11-14-11)
The frame itself stayed pretty true to the original designs, but the servo foot mechanisms underwent several iterations. At first they were too wobly, then they didnt have enough power, then the gears were in the way, etc. Eventually I landed on something that worked well.
Frame Phase 2: (6-1-12)
When I was finally able to start mounting the feet mechanisms to the legs I began to realize how big this rover was getting, so I ended up making the hard decision to scale it down some by shortening the legs.
I reduced the dimensions significantly but overall, it's still pretty large and none of it's ballance was sacrificed.
Robotic Arm Phase 1: (10-15-12)
Since this rover needs to be able to interact more directly with it's environment, I decided it needs an instrument arm. So far its a 5 axis articulated arm with pinch gripper (axis-6), but eventually
I want to outfit the end effector with a collection pan, brush, and drill, then another motor to select the tool.
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