demoPuppy

The demoPuppy Robot

A puppy robot created (sometime in 2010) for demos (and some research) at the AI Lab, University of Zurich. It can be an ideal (and cheap) solution for introductory robotics courses at high-schools and universities as it is designed to feature interchangeable legs, actuators, spines, microcontrollers and batteries.

The body has been designed with input from Juan Pablo Carbajal. The legs are a modified - 3D-printer optimized - version of a CNC-milled original design from Emanuel Benker.

Revisions & Issues

rev 0.2

Rev 0.2 is the first published revision. It is designed for use with an Arduino Uno micro-controller and comes in two configurations, a rigid and a flexible spine assembly. The flexible spine assembly is designed to be used with a 3mm diameter bungee elastic cord and a cam cleat (source files included). The spine stiffness can be varied by adjusting the bungee cord tension. Torsion springs are used to keep the cleat in place.

A current open issue is that the ABS "knee" joint might come loose over a prolonged period of use (several months) as the ABS material will get worn over time. A workaround would be to substitute the current joints with miniature ball-bearings, such as the ones found in HomeFly.

Files

• Solidworks source files (.sldprt, .sldasm)
• STEP files (.step)
• stl files (.stl)

License

All files are released under the CC BY-SA 3.0 licence.