BorisPhoto

From Simreal

1 Photos of Boris

Photos of Boris

All construction of the basic Boris system is complete. The frame, the legs, the pneumatics, the electronics. It is all in place and fucntional. I haven't built a mount for the compressor yet (preferring to experiment using a tether and onboard accumulator), and the software is still extremely primitive. But here he is.

Final pictures of Boris. It's all here except for the compressor or accumulator.

Woo-hoo! Three legs, fully hooked up with controllers, valves, the works. Three more to full operation (that, and software, which is of course totally lagging).

Here is the totally awesome bracket mount thing, that is used to attach the knee-joint cylinder.

Hey! FIRST MOTION last night. The mechanics are good, the electronics are good -- the software is riddled with bugs. But hey, it's a start. On the left, you can see Boris as assembled, with 2 out of 3 cylinders attached. In the center, I'm sitting in the middle of the frame. On the right a close-up of the test leg lifted in the air.

I have all of the Boris framework welded now. Here it is, pinned together. There are a few minor brackets still to attach, but it's looking good!

I haven't been entirely idle in the machine shop -- here are the sensor brackets, which I will weld onto the joint flanges when they are ready.

Various views of the leg and its joints -- I haven't welded them yet; I'm waiting for the final 12 joint flanges. It's hard to see in these photos, but Rick's work is just wonderful...

Aha! Most of my leg joints -- I'm short 12 of one type, but those will be in soon.

All of the hip spiders welded, and temporarily wired to the frame. They are probably interchangeable, but I'm no Henry Ford, so why risk it?

Different views of the hip joint, before and after welding. My secret to keeping the joints aligned on a common axis is to weld everything at once with a rod placed snuggly through all of the joints. This requires me to insert a bushing into the larger holes, and these poor suckers got all of the oil cooked out and they were seriously breaking down before I was done.

I made some test welds, in various configurations, to see what size welding tip to use and how easily the tubing welds to the thick metal brackets. As it turns out, with some simple pre-heating of the bracket itself, it all welds together beautifully!

Here is another set of hip brackets from Rick -- these have raised areas on boths sides, to allow an extension to be welded onto the hip spider. This extension will be sized to provide the correct range of motion for the leg swing.

The "hip spider" is a two-axis joint; one set of pivots on the vertical for leg swing, and another set of pivots on the horizontal leg for leg lift.

These are the full set of "part 08"... the attach to the hip spider and interface with the body flanges to make the horizontal pivot for the leg.

This is a sample of the "body flange" -- the bracket that mounts on the corner of the body frame and which the hip spider pivots off of. Note the machined "chevrons" for additional strength when welded to the body, and the overall reinforced style? This work is curtesy of Rick, the new guy on the project, who has been knocking himself out producing parts and doing an excellent job. I have the full set of 12 in the mail as I write, plus the sample of another par ft!

Here is the full set of cylinder brackets, hot out of the mail from Shane in California. Thanks Shane! Six legs, three cylinders per leg, eighteen brackets with backing plates... only 15 plates show, 'cause I left one at the shop when I was testing the fit. These custom brackets give the cylinders full range of motion but with a much lower profile than off-the-shelf pieces.

This is Boris's body framework. I'm not entirely sure how well the compressor will fit inside of it, since I bought a complete unit instead of building it up in parts. Of course, the body is far too large to fit into my tiny car... and so is the compressor! These two parts are actually in different cities right now... so we stay in suspense a bit longer.

These are samples of the machined parts that Shane is making for me. Nice work!

The pile of pieces doesn't look like much here. The jig I've made simplifies the layout and spot-welding for many of the pieces... I only need to clamp the outside struts now!

I've finished the six "shins" and six "thighs" of Boris. Here are the legs laid out, a well-lit detail of the first six, and a dimly-lit full set with the pneumatics. This project continues to blow my mind.