Homemade Robot: The Rise and Fall of Nephele 4

Описание: I built a homemade robot. It doesn't work well, but it's still my best robot yet. In this video, I walk through the many pitfalls and discoveries of the two year journey from start to finish.

I designed all my circuit boards in KiCad and used FlatCAM to prepare for curring the copper traces on my homemade CNC router. I developed some systems for doing UV-cure PCB solder masking.

I designed the robot's structural components and compound planetary gears in FreeCAD. The gears were 3D printed in nylon and then later printed in polycarbonate. I mixed some lapping compound and lapped the polycarbonate gears to improve tooth meshing and reduce friction.

The robot had many sensors at each joint that used 24-bit analog-digital converters. Those converters talked over cables up to a meter long with an ATmega328 microcontroller using the SPI protocol. Issues with SPI over longer cables required scrutiny and imagination, and were ultimately resolved with some discreet components and logic gates.

I created a motor driver board that converts a PWM speed signal and a high-low direction from the leg controller into reversible power for the motors that drive each joint.

The robot is just bad enough that I decided to start over. The things I learned throughout the project were really eye opening, and I know next time will be even better.

I arranged this video in segments where I talk about different aspects of the robot's design, followed by a montage of the footage related to that topic.

The segments in the video are:
00:00 Intro
01:48 Motor Drivers
07:08 Gears
13:27 Controllers
16:59 Solder Masking and PCB Clamping
18:24 Sensors
25:05 Final Montage
30:08 Wrap Up

I hope you enjoy! Thanks for watching :)