The Freaking Huge Spider
Members: Matt, Bridget and Dave
Prototype 1 - The Shmock-Up
Our team shmock up was of a refrigerator climber. The model is only of the climber’s arms, but the legs would function in a similar fashion. To enhance the appeal of our toy, we decided it make it a mountain climber so he would have ice picks in his hand. Magnets would be placed at the ends of the picks and in the climber’s feet. A roller magnet will be placed on his belly to help hold him to the fridge. We chose to implement a rather new idea and have the main motion of the arms and legs move in a plane perpendicular instead of parallel to the fridge. This movement was implemented to remove the need for electromagnets and a more advanced toy. Utilizing simple gears the arms and legs could be driven off of a single motor with opposite arms and legs moving upward at the same time.
Prototype 2 - The Interim Prototype
The second iteration of the schmock-up was designed to provide a more robust proof of concept than the first schmock-up with simplification of the mechanism to create a general climbing motion. The “new” design eliminated a number of moving parts that reduces the amount of space required for the mechanism and will provide flexibility for the final design.The current form of the climbing figure is that of a human—this is being redesigned to create a spider form that is pulled by two functioning legs. The spider will be designed to crawl along the ground and then crawl up a net that can be hung anywhere. The crawling motion and the climbing motion will be one in the same—using the basic motion concepted in the initial and second “refrigerator guy” schmock-up. By converting the figure to a spider, the toy will have more realism and also add a degree of versatility by crawling on the ground and up a hanging net. No magnets will be used for climbing, the spider will have hooks that grab a net-like surface.
The next step will be to build the body of the spider with the functioning legs in order to identify any dynamic issues with the body hanging from one limb as it progresses up a vertical surface. If the body is not able to effectively climb a vertical net, counter-weights in the body will be added to reduce the tendency of the spider body to act as a pendulum.
Prototype 3 - The Final Prototype
Watch the video of this project
