Hey Flutterers!
I'm designing a 3D printable 4WD robot frame you can power with Flutter, and I wanted to see what your thoughts on it were.
Here's a shot of it without the (currently not printed) middle flex joint:
And here's a close up of one drive section:
Everything except the bearings, drive belts, and electronics are printed. There are 4 printed fasteners but mostly everything fits together using clips and interlocking parts. Incidentally, the electronics and motors are the same as those for a quadcopter, though hobby speed controllers may not go slow enough.
The idea is to design a good open source robotics platform that has a minimum of non-printed parts. This allows infinite customization, easy online collaboration, and quick repairs of broken parts. I know a basic wheeled platform for researchers can be $500 but this is less than $100 in parts, and could be made to be even cheaper.
What do you guys think!? This is the kind of thing we could sell as kits on Kickstarter or something after we've delivered your rewards. I love the idea of teaching high school kids how to print, build, and program their own robots, and I'm curious what you all think of it too.
-Taylor
