Axel Rover, 2 wheels are all you need! |
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Axel Rover, 2 wheels are all you need! |
 Feb 6 2009, 02:02 AM
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#1
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 Senior Member  Group: Members Posts: 1260 Joined: 18-December 04 From: San Diego, CA Member No.: 124  |
Demo video of the Axel tethered rover - we could have used this to rappel down Victoria!
Axel Rover More info here. And here And here.  -------------------- Lyford Rome
"Zis is not nuts, zis is super-nuts!" Mathematician Richard Courant on viewing an Orion test |
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Feb 6 2009, 05:30 AM
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#2
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 Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 1154 Joined: 3-August 06 From: 43° 35' 53" N 1° 26' 35" E Member No.: 1004 |
This remembers me of one of the old designs for the 1960s Prospector lunar rover
-------------------- I'm one of the most durable and fervent advocates of space exploration, but my take is that we could do it robotically at far less cost and far greater quantity and quality of results.
James Van Allen |
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 Feb 6 2009, 06:42 AM
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#3
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 Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 1229 Joined: 24-December 05 From: The blue one in between the yellow and red ones. Member No.: 618 |
This is mind-blowing.
The winch in the middle is exactly what I need to install in the 'abdomen' of my spelunking spider, SHELOB, to explore Martian caves. The main difference is that my cable will have a fiber-optic core to transmit instructions, data, and video between the surface base station and the subterranean (sorry, don't know the Mars term) probe. I still prefer the six or eight legged spider design to provide long legs for climbing up over bouldery rubble obstructions, and to provide a spacious, stable platform for cameras and other sensors, laser spectrometer, sampling 'mandible', and an exobiology-lab-in-a-shoebox. But, hey, these guys and I are all on the same page. Bliss. 
-------------------- My Grandpa goes to Mars every day and all I get are these lousy T-shirts!
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Feb 6 2009, 09:18 AM
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Member Group: Members Posts: 251 Joined: 22-September 08 From: Spain Member No.: 4350 |
It looks like some sort of Framsticks creature.
-------------------- "I can easily see still in my mind’s-eye the beautiful clusters of these berries as they appeared to me..., when I came upon an undiscovered bed of them... – the rich clusters drooping in the shade there and bluing all the ground" -- Thoreau
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Feb 6 2009, 09:26 AM
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#5
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 Member Group: Members Posts: 565 Joined: 20-April 05 Member No.: 279 |
Major flashback time. I made one of these nearly forty years ago. From a Ladybird book using (as per the link) a wooden cotton reel, pencil, rubber band and a chunk of wax.
Andy, momentarily back in 1970. |
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Feb 6 2009, 11:54 AM
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#6
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 Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 2940 Joined: 4-November 05 From: North Wales Member No.: 542 |
QUOTE (AndyG @ Feb 6 2009, 09:26 AM)  Andy, momentarily back in 1970. . . and Nigel likewise a few years earlier. I used to make big ones out of cable reels. A wacky question comes to mind. Could mechanical energy storage using elastic or springs (I'm guessing flywheels would be too heavy) have any extra-terrestrial robotic applications? |
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Feb 6 2009, 11:56 AM
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#7
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 Administrator Group: Chairman Posts: 13272 Joined: 8-February 04 Member No.: 1 |
As I said on Twitter - A Mississippi Steam Boat captain just called. He wants his paddle wheels back.
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Feb 6 2009, 07:54 PM
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#8
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 1260 Joined: 18-December 04 From: San Diego, CA Member No.: 124 |
I love that the project page at CalTech lets you see the guts!
Shaka - speaking of "same page" - I assume you have seen these critters? -------------------- Lyford Rome
"Zis is not nuts, zis is super-nuts!" Mathematician Richard Courant on viewing an Orion test |
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Feb 6 2009, 08:20 PM
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#9
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 1229 Joined: 24-December 05 From: The blue one in between the yellow and red ones. Member No.: 618 |
Yeah! LEMUR! Other-side-of-the-pillow cool. Del Palmer put me onto it back in the original cave explorer thread.
Definitely a step in the right direction! I hope work is continuing to make it a really agile rock climber. -------------------- My Grandpa goes to Mars every day and all I get are these lousy T-shirts!
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