This walking robot was designed and built by Tom Nguyen, Jonathan Chavez, Connor Linklater and Jonathan Lu. It follows Chenhao’s design but uses stepper motors instead of DC servo motors. The chassis design was inspired by the GNK power droids of Star Wars. The legs are pairs of six-bar rectilinear mechanisms that are 180 degrees out of phase. Each pair of legs is driven by a stepper motor. It is controlled through Blue Tooth using an iPhone application.
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This robot walker has two drive motors, one for each side. Four rectilinear legs on each side provide a smooth and stable gait. Steering is achieved by changing the relative speeds of the two motors. This is another excellent design by Ken Nguyen.
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This is the latest walker design from Ken Nguyen. His designs demonstrate the effectiveness of the rectilinear leg. We used one of his designs as the prototype for our Halloween walkers. Here he demonstrates the use of these legs in a four-legged walker. Please take a look.
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This walking robot has four legs and only two actuators. Usually a walking robot has two actuators for each leg, so four legs means eight actuators. Our goal has been to find ways to reduce the number of actuators and the associated control burden and still have an effective walking robot. This prototype was developed in collaboration with Chenhao Liu at SUSTech (Southern University of Science and Technology, Sichuan, China) with Jiaji Li at UCI (University of California, Irvine) that started with the UCInspire program last Summer 2022 and continues into 2023.
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These Halloween robots were delivering candy at UCI on October 31, 2022. For Fall 2022, we were back to in person project-based learning and the students responded enthusiastically. Over the summer we improved the joint design as well as the drive train, and we focussed on two legs to simplify the construction. The result was an improvement in overall performance that lays the groundwork for the future. Please take a look.
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This lecture describes my approach to project-based learning for Kinematic synthesis, which I developed while on sabbatical at Stanford University. I presented this lecture at the 2019 Kinematics Summer School organized by Anurag Purwar. Since that time, we have gotten better at making these walking robots easier to build and more reliable.
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Kempe’s Universality Theorem states that every algebraic curve has an associated linkage that draws the curve. A popular phrasing of this theorem is “a linkage exists that can sign your name”. This lecture summarizes our efforts to find simplified versions of curve-drawing linkages. A remarkable outcome is the ability to mechanically draw Bézier curves, which yields a linkage system that can sign your name, and even write cursive Chinese. I was honored to return to the University of Pennsylvania’s Grasp Lab after over 30 years to make this presentation. This highlights the excellent work Yang Liu.
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This is my lecture from the 2014 Kinematics Summer School organized by Anurag Purwar and is my best summary of the status of kinematic theory for the synthesis of planar six-bar and eight-bar linkages. It highlights the excellent work of Mark Plecnik, Kaustube Sonawale, Brian Parrish and Brandon Tsuge.
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This video presents the mechanical walker prototypes designed and constructed by the students in my Kinematic Synthesis of Mechanisms class. They design and simulate the leg mechanism using Geogebra, then use SolidWorks to generate a details digital model and simulate its movement. Next they build and actuate two legs to test the motor drive and electronics. Finally, they assemble the complete walker and test it.
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I have seen intercollegiate engineering competitions like the Baja Validation Event organized by SAE International become important educational experiences. Working together to accomplish a complex task, forces students to become engineers. They see first-hand the benefits of integrated design, simulation, fabrication and testing. And perhaps, more importantly, they learn to work as a team, communicating effectively, meeting responsibilities, respecting differences, and pushing toward a shared goal.
This video captures the results of the work of the 2021 UCI Baja Race Team, who designed, built and tested their vehicle while under the severe pandemic restrictions. I hope you see the commitment and hard work of these young engineers under uniquely difficult circumstances show that our future is in good hands.
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