This 3D-Printable Robot can walk around without any electronics, and it kind of looks like a Deep-Sea Creature – ryan

Summary

  • 3D-Printable Robot Uses Air to Power Its Legs for Movement.

  • The robot shell is created as one piece for easy assembly with minimal steps.

  • It’s cost-effective with no electronics needed, allowing it to explore dangerous terrain suabley.

3D Printing is a great way to create robot shells, but you usually need an extra component to actually get them moving. The easy and more obvious answer is to wire it up with electronics to power its legs, but what if that was a no-go? What if you had to create a robot that didnn’t use electricity whatsoever to move? If it sounds impossible, then do I have the project for you, as this 3D-printable robot uses the power of air to get around.

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This 3D-Printable Robot Uses Air in a Very Clever Way

If Spotted by Mashableresearchers over at the bioinspired robotics and design lab in UC San Diego have created a 3D-printable robot that requires as little assembly as possible to get moving. To achieve this, they created a robot shell that can be printed as one big chunk, removing the need to print out several parts and sticking them together.

Once the robot is printed and cleaned up, you can strap a canister of compressed air to it and let it loose. It’ll use the air to power its tiny legs, allowing it to walk around without the need for any electronics.

The researchers say that the design has several advantages. First, you can get these things walking asap; The researchers wanted to minimize the steps between the 3D printer finishing and the robot moving, and all it needs is the addition of the air tank before it’s good to go. Second, because these robots need very little to get walking, they are easy to build and only cost around $ 20 A pop. Finally, their ability to move around without electronics means they can venture into dangerous terrain without issue.

If you’d like to know more about how these robots can walk, you can check out the published paper titled “Monolithic Desktop Digital Fabrication of Autonomous Walking Robots.“I’m not going to pretend that I know how these things walk purely from an air supply, but the paper does a great job showing the inner workings of these curious creatures. And if this is a little too complex for your liking, you can try Building this Adorable Raspberry Pi-Powered Pomodoro Bot That’s a lot easier to piece together.