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Lego Mechanisms

Published on 1 Apr 2007 at 12:49 am. 2 Comments.
Filed under Fun, Intelligent Systems, Inventions, Lego, NXT, Research, Robotics, Solutions.

I am in the process of making a Lego Laser Scanner.  The instrument is designed to move a mirror both back and forth and up and down to reflect a laser beam in any direction within a solid angle defined by the range of motion of the mirror.  At this stage, the Lego Laser Scanner is more like a Lego Laser Show as it has two motors that rotate at distinct and programmable rates to produce Lissajous figures with the reflected laser beam.  Stay tuned, as next week, I plan to have photos and a movie.

To make a useful scanner, I would prefer to use one motor rather than two.  This will require some complex gearing, but it is straight-forward.  The part that had me a bit puzzled was the fact that I want the scanner to make one horizontal sweep while maintaining a constant vertical position.  Once the horizontal sweep is finished, I need it to nudge the vertical orientation of the mirror just a bit, and then perform another horizontal sweep and so on.  How to do this with a single motor was not clear.  Until I came across a set of fabulous mechanisms by Leo Dorst of the Intelligent Systems Laboratory Amsterdam at the University of Amsterdam in The Netherlands.

Leo Dorst's Design for a Geneva Mechanism

Leo Dorst created a Lego version of the Geneva Mechanism, which moves film through a projector by holding it still while intermittently feeding it through the mechanism.  His sketch is above, but better images and instructions exist on his website.  He has a wide variety of Lego Mechanisms, that I am sure I will find useful in the near future.

In the meantime, his design (below) of a six degree-of-freedom robotic arm is fantastic!!!

Leo Dorst's Design of a Robotic Arm

I have found the books below to be very good.

Enjoy,
Kevin Knuth
Albany NY

2 Comments to ‘Lego Mechanisms’:

  1. Lego Insanity» Blog Archive » Lego Mechanisms on 1 Apr 2007 at 3:52 am: 1

    […] View original post here: drknuth […]

  2. joe on 1 Apr 2007 at 11:28 am: 2

    Can you shape the device’s shell in the likeness of MJ’s head - I think you could make some bucks.

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