[Art]

Interesting, but all those cables are problems waiting to happen!! Far more complex than it needs to be, IMHO.

[goaty]

Interesting, but all those cables are problems waiting to happen!! Far more complex than it needs to be, IMHO.

Its similar a decision between pully wire brakes or hydraulic brakes.   If you do your tendons like that, it means you are pushing the need for electrics further back in the design. It makes the robot not fully electrical (down its limbs),  which I like - but the cool thing is if you use an air battery, then your whole design doesn't need metal at all, and that's pretty cool.

And pully cables can be very skinny guitar strings and they are still tough as hell!!

[HS]

A visual representation of the design idea.

[Korrelan]

I can see your serious about this model and the visualisation looks very cool.

I hope you have a fine tipped soldering iron lol.

 

[goaty]

That super block computer design looks like a good topology.   I guess the inputs come in 5 faces, and the outputs come out the bottom?

[LOCKSUIT]

Maybe make the block system in a physics sim in UE4 where it has life-like physics? Might be hard to make 300 complex blocks in real life and fix/power them constantly lol by hand?

[Freddy]

Ah so this is where the Borg will originate 

Seriously, looks nice

[HS]

That super block computer design looks like a good topology.   I guess the inputs come in 5 faces, and the outputs come out the bottom?

It would make sense to do it that way, wouldn't it? Thanks, that's better than what I was thinking.

[HS]

Maybe make the block system in a physics sim in UE4 where it has life-like physics? Might be hard to make 300 complex blocks in real life and fix/power them constantly lol by hand?

Not if I make a mold and cast them in resin or rubber, like dice. Power is easy, just connect to wide contacts and power goes to the back of the row. I'm going to put indicator leds in them so they will glow when powered. 

[Korrelan]

I guess the inputs come in 5 faces, and the outputs come out the bottom?

Erm! I feel you need to think about this carefully...

Although I'm not certain what kind of topology you envision for your network, plan/ lay out a set of blocks, taking into consideration the columnar/ depth communication between the stacks as well as the rows.  Having just one output face will severely limit the available topologies.

I know it's early days but have you ever done any electronics prototyping? Breadboard, veroboard, etc?

 

[LOCKSUIT]

@korr, unless his output face is a vector net...then it can combine with the other cubes...

[Art]

With all those faces and contacts constantly opening and closing, don't forget about arcing and sparking which in time will dirty and degrade the contact surfaces, affecting performance. Just a thought.

[HS]

With all those faces and contacts constantly opening and closing, don't forget about arcing and sparking which in time will dirty and degrade the contact surfaces, affecting performance. Just a thought.

It's only 5 volts, I'll connect it to power once it's assembled. I could try to use the same architecture, substituting neurons with electromagnets, to make muscles. Though I'd imagine those would be twitchy in nature, because of short circuits turning magnets off only to have them fall back into the same short circuit. For robot muscles, given the goal of attaining a cohesive aesthetic, (in the same sense that a tiger is cohesive, but an alien depicted by humans lacks a certain something that I'm hoping for, central essence or grace or whatever), I think pistons are a natural fit. So I'll try those for muscles. 

I know it's somehow bad form to express a sense of aesthetics in science and technology today, but we should keep in mind that our sense of aesthetics is the result of a multitude of tried and true calculations which serve to make us literally feel the robustness of other life forms. Being open to guidance from this extra sense may well help progress. Our biology probably "knows" things that our conscious minds have not discovered yet. 

[HS]

Now any cube will transfer power to all other cubes! Powered cubes glow for easy troubleshooting.

[goaty]

That's a really good model - I know kit modelling is really powerful but I still cant get over the fact since when I was a kid I didn't know anything and I thought it was impossible to model pro things.

If you want your robot to be graceful, it takes much practice and many horrible failures...   Man as an amature artist is a horrible thing.