Check this out: Muscle wire

Have you heard of muscle wire?

It contracts when you pass current through it, heating it up, and returns to its original length when it cools.

It's made of shape memory alloy called Nitinol which undergoes a "reversible solid-state phase transformation known as a martensitic transformation" [Source: Wikipedia].

Have you used it? Post up your projects in the comments.

Robotic Christmas, Autonomous Systems Lab

Here's the 2013 Robotic Christmas video from the Autonomous Systems Lab. Enjoy!

Trash Robot Design, Part 2

[ Requirements | Design 1 | Design 2 | Chassis ]

Previously we looked at an option of lifting the trash can and driving it down the driveway to the curb. This time around let's look at the other option of grabbing the can's handle and wheeling it to its destination.

Grab the handle and wheel the cans to the curb

The robot can either tilt the can and roll it like I do or drag it flat. Again, one robot. Stock (or slightly modified) can. Less force is required to tilt the can than lift it as you might intuitively guess.

Probably a good idea to do some preliminary calculations on this tilty thing. The force required to tilt the 25kg can around its wheel axles measures 45-50N.

About 45-50N is required to tilt the can at its handle.

If you use some kind of arm to do this tilting, how much torque is needed?