Thanks for downloading!
We'd love to hear from you if the print was successful. If you like the design, please consider donating to the designer.
Donate to Erik de BruijnTesla Snake Arm v2
I'm building a snake robot arm that can charge my electric car. Adapted from the design by Juan Sirgado y Antico.
Gadget
Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike
Commercial use is allowed, you must attribute the creator, you may remix this work and the remixed work should be made available under this license.
Description
For a long time, I've wanted to automate the plugging in of my electric car. When I saw Juan had already started designing a snake arm that resemble's the one Tesla is prototyping, I thought, why not give it a try. My car is already being charged by open source electronics, but this project just seemed like to much fun and too interesting not to do it.
I'm planning on using computer vision with an off the shelf component called "Pixy" CMUcam5 and have it recognize the position and rotation of color codes. Little pairs of stickers that need to appear in the right place before the final insertion is executed.
Changes compared to the original by Juan Sirgado y Antico (link: www.thingiverse.com/thing:959891)
- Made snakebody() more parametric
- The 3 cables need a more smooth path to move properly
- Removed a lot of "flesh" from the model
- Made the ball joint neck a bit smaller so it can have a bigger hole on the inside without sacrificing strength.
Materials and methods
- Print the snake_body parts at 2x scale, as many as you need to create the right length
- Add Pixy CMUcam5 if you want to add simple computer vision.
Documents
Edit in 3dslash
Issues
Issues are used to track todos, bugs or requests. To get started, you could create an issue.
Comments
GaryLlamas added this to the njkj collection ago
Paweł Urbański added this to the car collection ago
gschrang commented agoHave you tried using magnets in a sleeve for the joints instead of ball joints. No friction (ie. + on +) between sections. Only pulling the string to collapse the corners.... Just a thought.
Erik de Bruijn commented agoI just used string to keep things together and simulate it by hand to see what kind of friction the servos would need to overcome. With the big ball joints it seems like it is not feasible, it has a lot of friction. Perhaps using just the (thick) power cord as a core and leaving out the ball&sockets would even give a better result!
There is a popular servo design on YouMagine, b.t.w.
nbarker88 commented agoHow do you assemble it? Also, what kind of feedback mechanism is used to control the movements?
It is a very interesting idea. Thanks for sharing.
Erik de Bruijn commented agoHi em3kay, I actually did print lots of them. See the picture in the timeline of the design or see this link:
https://goo.gl/photos/KJ5dLQHzfFeZSvdX7
Erik de Bruijn printed this ago
- Printed on:
- Ultimaker - The Ultimaker 2
- Result:
- Good printing results.
- Feedback:
- There's too much friction caused by the ball socket mechanism for this concept to actually work.
em3kay commented agodid you ever end up scaling this one up? to work with your car? looks good
cyclone commented agoI love the quick eager to please action you are giving it. I'd love to see an animation with this little guy meeting Luxo Jr.
Very nice to see this thing printed, can't wait for the servo control to be added.
Erik de Bruijn published this design ago