Sustaining Engineering on an Older FDM

A short repair/modification to an aging 3D printer, and a mystery solved.

It’s Alive!

I displayed the robot at ImagineRIT this weekend, showing it making some basic shapes and text. I used the Jtech Photonics plugin for Inkscape to generate some Gcode for it, with a few modifications to make it work with a pen (the software is designed for use with laser cutters). Marlin, the open-source firmware I'm … Continue reading It’s Alive! →

Introducing N.C. Sketcher

I'm working on N.C Sketcher for my final robotics class at RIT. See other posts about this system on the project hub. While I have been sinking some time into exploring computer vision processes, I have also been working hard on coming up with an actual hardware platform. While benchmarking existing drawing machines, I made … Continue reading Introducing N.C. Sketcher →

TigerBug: Mechanical machinations

This is part of TigerBug, a robot design I am working on for use at RIT for research and as a fundraising tool . Take a look at the project hub for more progress on different components of this project. Swarm robots are tiny. really tiny. They're intended to be as low-cost as possible, work … Continue reading TigerBug: Mechanical machinations →

Modifying a 40 year old bicycle to support sequential shifting

I have a 1970s vintage Raleigh Grand Prix, which I used to use to commute between my apartment and classes/work. It's served me well, but after being stored for a few months in a humid basement, it was really hurting. I avoided taking any pictures of the bike at this point, but believe me, it … Continue reading Modifying a 40 year old bicycle to support sequential shifting →

Using Kinematic Analysis to Create a Robotic Leg Model

One of my prior projects was A six legged robot, that used a simple rotational motion from a motor to produce complex rotational motion at each of its legs. The concept worked roughly, but the design process I had used to create it was pretty imprecise (aka, trial and error in Autodesk Inventor). There are some … Continue reading Using Kinematic Analysis to Create a Robotic Leg Model →

Experiments with Flexible Filament

I've had this roll of flexible Ninjaflex filament sitting around for a while, which I used to create some grippy feet for my bug robot. Somebody had asked me to make them a case for their aging Iphone 4, which they didn't want to spend any further money on, so it seemed like a good … Continue reading Experiments with Flexible Filament →