September 27, 201014 yr It looks really good to me! To SLIGHTLY reduce the friction on the lifting head, you may want to try dabbing Olive Oil on a Q-Tip cotton swab and putting a little bit inside the motorized stud-lifter. It will not dissolve the ABS plastic, and is harmless.
September 27, 201014 yr Author Well, the friction when lifting the head on itself is not the issue. There is a mechanism inside the head that pushes the stud out of the element that grabs onto the stud. Currently that mechanism kicks in too late, making that it doesn't let go of the stud in time. It's just a matter of timing it right and the issue with the model breaking down or the building platform lifting will be solved.
September 28, 201014 yr very very nice, may I ask you what brick you use to lift the parts? I'm currently using these, but i havent figured out how to mechanically eject the parts: link I hope to get such nice results with my delta robot too!
September 28, 201014 yr Author very very nice, may I ask you what brick you use to lift the parts? I'm currently using these, but i havent figured out how to mechanically eject the parts: link I hope to get such nice results with my delta robot too! I'm using a standard 1x1 round brick (with hollow stud) to pick up the parts :) I have been looking into the technic connectors you refer to, but my conclusion was that they hold on to strong to the stud (technic hole diameter is slightly smaller then the stud diameter, it'll work, but be too tight). And another issue I found was that it's quite hard to get the technic connectors attached in such a way that they won't rotate. The way I release the parts is something I don't want to disclose at this point :P Edited September 28, 201014 yr by Dryw Filtiarn
September 28, 201014 yr unfortunately I don't have one single 1x1 round brick with me (must be with the 20 kilo of normal lego in my hometown) and since the vacuum method did not bring the results I wanted, in terms of reliability, I'm stuck with the Technic connectors now...
September 28, 201014 yr WOW this is simply awesome!! I always enjoy seeing things like that. From your last video Ive seen that you have a bit trouble to release the picked up brick (you have to rely on the studs to hold) i though maybe you can put a bar (probably 4L ) and make it come out of the bottom of the 1 x 1 round brick and the bar will detach the plate\brick from the round brick and separate easily, but i assume that will require changing the whole mechanism but, it would have been better that way but then the bar must move freely inside the hole of the brick (just an idea). I think with some hard thinking we might find a way to attach any kind of bricks Anyways great progress!!! cant wait to see it actually build something
September 28, 201014 yr Author As said, don't take to much notice of the issue that shows in the video when the brick is being released from the build-robot :) The issue is technically solved, but it's just a programming mistake I made on the NXT :) If I fix the programming error, the problem won't show anymore either :)
September 28, 201014 yr Author I just finished work on fixing the part-release issue and some more advanced programming of the building-robot. The part-release issue has been perfectly (and reliably) solved now and everything works like a charm. I've made a new video showing the building-robot at work (still manually fed with parts): I've also recorded a quick and dirty video, trying to show all parts of the factory, it's not that great to be honest, but at least it gives some insight on the size and what the warehouse looks like.
October 1, 201014 yr seems to work perfectly! I'm still struggling with my delta robot, which has one major disadvantage to your linear setup, he cant press two parts together... but we'll see...
October 4, 201014 yr Author A short update on the project. Unfortunately progress hasn't been as smooth as I hoped, but the warehouse robot is getting along nicely anyway. During programming I ran into some issues with the mechanical construction of the robot, requiring me to do some minor rebuilding/adjustment to the robot's construction. The "rebuilding" is nearly complete and I only need to change one final part tomorrow. After that I can continue on the programming of the robot and hopefully complete it within a day or two. Once done, that means that all robots are ready and programmed, and then the final thing to do is build some Windows software to do the controlling of the factory. Plan is still to be able to build a small model in LDD and then import it and have it build automagicly, I'll see how easy it will be, otherwise I'll do some fixed models for now and do some proper software programming for the controlling software after the LegoWorld Zwolle event. Unfortunately time is starting to run out, with only 14 days left, still hoping I will manage, but if there aren't any setbacks anymore, I think I'll make it. New video's will come later, but due to the amount of time left, might come only after the LegoWorld Zwolle event, when I'm back at home.
October 4, 201014 yr @ Dryw Filtiarn: Please don't sacrifice your precious time making a video now, at the expense of finishing the programming of your factory. We can wait for its completion and after it has been publicly shown. One has to budget their time and set priorities (like eating, sleeping, going to work, etc.)....
October 11, 201014 yr Author Things are going smoothly currently, all the mechanics have been verified and changed where needed and now work like a charm. Basically this means that it only comes down to writing software, software and even more software. The robots have now been programmed for the biggest part, although there's still some work left to do on that. I'd say each individual robot is now currently at about 95% completion in regards to the software for the NXT's. For the past few days I've been focussing a bit on the software that will run on a laptop, which will send instructions to the factory. I'm now capable of loading LDD (Lego Digital Designer) models and process them. Most of the functionality of the Windows software now also has been implemented and the main thing left there, is doing the final step of translating the brick locations in the model into factory commands, so the model will be build. Here are some screenshots of the software I've been writing to run on the laptop: This is the screen that I will be looking at, it gives me all the controls I need, to be capable of controlling the factory. I will also have a secondary screen attached to the laptop that will be directed at the visitors so that they also get some information on what the factory is doing. The "visitor" screen, is yet to be extended with more information. Note: you currently see some blank spots in the warehouse, these spots are all to be filled in, but I haven't exactly determined which parts to use there
October 11, 201014 yr Wow you doing quite a large project here with added software and real word mechanics. Good luck!
October 12, 201014 yr Author A short video showing the software at work. It's not yet completed but I'm close to getting there. I expect to have everything up and running either by tomorrow evening or thursday. Progress is going smooth so far.
October 13, 201014 yr Author I really have no clue at this point how long such a model would take I'm currently in the final stages of getting the instructions send from the computer to the factory. As soon as I get that solved I can do a trial to see if everything works as it should and how long things will take. If you ask me for a really, really rough guesstimate I expect it to take around 40 minutes (for 59 bricks in the house model), but then again, it might be more and it might be less. I will know no sooner then I actually get it to really build the first model. Edited October 13, 201014 yr by Dryw Filtiarn
October 14, 201014 yr Author A short update of last day. I am nearly at the point where I have gotten everything to work together. I've been doing some short trial runs, but I had to abort most of them due to the computer disconnecting from the NXT, causing things to go wrong :(. That issue is now solved as it was caused by two processes in the software trying to communicate with the NXT at the same time occasionally, crashing the blue-tooth chip on the NXT (which resulted in that only a restart of the NXT would get things working again). Beside the programming business, I've also been working on some of the detailing of the factory, so that there's more to see then just the technic construction and it's functionality, just a bit of fun to please the eye, so to say. You can click the images for a larger version of the image. The forklift was build after the instructions of Brickshelf user "smhltec" Edited October 14, 201014 yr by Dryw Filtiarn
October 15, 201014 yr The fans attending LegoWorld in Zwolle, The Netherlands are going to really like seeing this special MOC!
October 18, 201014 yr Author I took me a couple hours of work but, but everything is disassembled now... All packed and ready to go to LegoWorld in 9 hours from now. For those of you who go there, make sure to come by and have a chat :) Edited October 18, 201014 yr by Dryw Filtiarn
October 19, 201014 yr Good luck with your display! I just found this before.. you might be interested in: http://www.battlebricks.com/makerlegobot/ Neato way to pickup and place bricks... and I see he uses a flexible Znap axle in there too... RB
October 23, 201014 yr found a complete picture ;) http://thenxtstep.blogspot.com/ direct link: http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_cAlrqSpaMXk/TL9kgvibENI/AAAAAAAABTc/ChXfekdBVtU/s1600/IMG_2018-factory-by-martijn_Bosgraaf.jpg looks epic, and now i can finally see how the storage works ;) Edited October 23, 201014 yr by VASH321
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