Things that Move
Max Shepherd
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This is a robotic arm I made from Lego. It has 12 degrees of freedom, and can do some cool stuff. Check out the video. It was recently blogged about on CNET, PCWorld, Make, Popular Science and Gizmodo: The CNET one The PopSci one |
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| This project was my senior thesis. I built a 1/4 scale model of a power wheelchair that unfolds, with the user strapped in, into a Segway-like machine. It is specifically designed to put paraplegics in a comfortable standing position, putting them at eye level and reducing their horizontal footprint. The model is made of plastic from a 3D printer (the black pieces) and acrylic. Two geared DC motors power the front wheels, and two linear actuators are responsible for the sit-to-stand transformation. An inertial measurement unit is used with a PIC running a PID control system for balance. |
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| This is a short demonstration of a LabVIEW program I wrote that simulates a delta robot. It's pretty cool actually; skip to 1:25 to see it in action |
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This is a gripper I designed (with a buddy) to pick up an egg without crushing it. It was designed to maximize the margin of error, since the arm was to be controlled with bio-potentials, which are difficult to control. To the right is the SolidWorks model. (All of the black in the finished product was printed on the 3D printer.) Below left is a video, and below right are all the filters/amplifiers/h bridges etc. to run it. |
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| Here we go back about six years, to the human powered hovercraft project from junior year of high school. This took many many late nights, and eventually hovered under pedal power. My partner Robert Draper and I also built a leaf blower-powered hovercraft when we were freshmen (bottom right). More info can be found at our old website (there may be pop-ups, we were poor). |
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