Presentation "Inverse Kinematics of a Stewart platform"
Albert Castellanos Roigs from the Universitat de Girona presents his Bachelor thesis (Youtube) on our Stewart-Gough platform, powered by rotational hobby servo motors.
Building on Robert Eisele's study, "Inverse Kinematics of a Stewart Platform", he adapted the original JavaScript code for a unique application with a UV penlight laser.
The modified code enables writing of various images, including company logos or text fragments, onto a phosphorescent screen.
A new round of Bastet redesign coming up!
Behind the screens, some students have further improved upon the Bastet V2 LORE robot, providing new groundwork for detailing all the bits and parts for a quadruped cat-like robot.
In the OPT Course Projects 1 students start from 3D renders and incomplete schematics and create a full technical dossier of a robot-to be. later in the academic year, all CNC G-code, machining parameters and tools, bending sequences, 3D printer setups are to be determined during the Projects 2 course.
During the Projects 3 course next year, the robot will be built!
LORE gets an updated command and control interface
LORE is controlled using an Arduino MEGA 2560 board with lots of breakout boards, that in turn is controlled with the TiSCo Software suit.
Lots of development has happened since the first public description of the software. The underlying framework of TiSCo has been upgraded from Ball Aerospace COSMOS V4 to OpenC3 COSMOS V5.9; a fully web integrated, cloud native command an control solution for all sorts of embedded hardware.
Radio interview on URGENT FM 105.3 with Julie and Jurgen
In this URGENT FM radio special about looking back on the past academic year, Julie Geerinck reflects on the LORE project that she and her partner Apollo De Vos participated in, designing and building the first prototype of 'La Ragna'.
Jurgen Symynck also joins in and talks about the challenges that an ambitious and modern education faces, trying to keep up with bleeding edge technological developments.
La Ragna V4.4 presentation and demo
(See elsewhere for a shorter version of this video)
As part of his bachelor thesis project, Andreu Aliu has extensively revised the La Ragna V2 in the first half of 2023. The robot leg shows its capabilities by drawing complex logos on a fluorescent screen.
The precision of the drawn logos are not that great, but this is a side effect of the teach-in method: to realize these logo-writing motions, one just holds the robot leg tip by hand and traces a logo printed on a piece of paper that lies on top of the fluorescent screen. Meanwhile, the TiSCo Software suit records the servo angle positions. The remaining leeway and play in the robot joints negatively affects a high fidelity recording, together with unavoidable inprecisions & shudders the human operator/recorder introduces.
Note that the repeatability IS great on the other hand: every pass, the LED passes exactly over the previous trace!
We are impatient to try dedicated Inverse Kinematics- based control software on the full robot - Stay tuned.
First test of La Ragna V4.2!
Andreu shows off his first La Ragna V4.2 leg prototype, just in time for our Open House day on April 22, 2023. The Aluminium shins were not finished in time, so we threw something together using paper and glue... Could you tell the difference?
14 students start a new round of LORE robot designs
As part of our 'Projects 1' course, the first course in a string of four, fourteen students volunteer to upgrade the schematics of Ragna V1 and Bastet V1.
Introducing: La Ragna and Bastet robots
During the past months, Julie Geerinck, Apollo De Vos and Wouter Goossens designed and finished their design of a spider-like robot and a dog like robot.
A look at the brains of the LORE Robots
The robot is actuated with an PWM servo shield , on top of an Arduino MEGA 2560.
It is controlled by OpenC3 COSMOS software.
The firmware is hosted on Github. Want to join the development? You are more than welcome!
Final assembly of the robot... will it work?
The final assembly of the TIGInator robot.
Work Preparation for the milling of the Servo Mounting Head
Work Preparation for the milling of the Servo Mounting Head. It will be mated to an 3D-printed adapter that connects to the sheetmetal arm.
Preparations for the first LORE build have begun!
The 3D-CAD model and 2D construction drawings of the TIGinator are checked for manufacture feasability by OPT teachers (Renaat Van Hecke, Geert Poelman and Jurgen Symynck). A team of three eager students will modify and build all the necessary parts as part of the 'Projecten 3' or 'Projects 3' course at Ontwerp- en productietechnologie , results are expected around january 2022.
LORE development prototype in action!
This plywood development prototype draws the OPT Logo The robot is actuated with an PWM servo shield , on top of an Arduino MEGA 2560. It is controlled by OpenC3 COSMOS software. The firmware is hosted on Github.
The precision of the drawn logo is not that great, but this is a side effect of the teach-in method: to realize this logo-writing motion, one just holds the robot leg tip by hand and traces a logo printed on a piece of paper that lies on top of the fluorescent screen. Meanwhile, the TiSCo Software suit records the servo angle positions. The lack of mechanical stiffness in this (software) development prototype allows a lot of leeway and play, negatively affecting a high fidelity recording...
Note that the repeatability IS great on the other hand: every pass, the LED passes exactly over the previous trace!