Small Powered Winch by JamesNewton

Last crawled date: 3 years ago

This is a first attempt at a computer controlled, stepper motor driven, powered winch. Like the winch design it is based on, there are ball bearing races on the base around the spindle (both red), on the spindle itself (with break away support structures) and on the underside of the screw on cap (green). These are filled with 6mm (not 2mm) ball bearings to provide a smooth support for the reel (blue). The reel is turned by the drive gear (yellow) which is attached to the shaft of the stepper motor which is mounted up through the bottom of the base. The current stepper size is NEMA23, but the unit can be scaled up for larger drive.
There are many possible uses including running a "zip line" for a ghost that is raised and lowered with a semi-random pattern, or any other light weight object that needs to be raised and lowered automatically. I want to use three of them to make a "flying" area robot like the "SkyCam".http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skycam
This was inspired by the "WireBot" project originally featured in Make Magazine:http://makezine.com/projects/Build-a-Wirebot/
(if the original link doesn't work, here is the archive)http://web.archive.org/web/20120806013138/http://makeprojects.com/Project/Build-a-Wirebot/744/1
And the original is here:https://www.synthetos.com/grblshield-wirebot/
and finally, the python program to pre-process the G-Code from XYZ to cable length is here:https://github.com/synthetos/WireBot
Because the position of the wirebot is easily calculated from the length of cable released by the winches, there are no positioning problems for the robot. Complex feedback systems or micro GPS are not required to position accurately over a given area such as a room or a hall.
The applications for a cable positioned robot are mindboggling.
Imagine a robot hanging above a garden on three poles that can "fly" over the plants taking pictures for remote review, probing the soil for moisture level, and if fitted with a gripper or something like the "Awesome Auger^" could remove weeds, dig small holes to plant seeds, etc...
A platter hung under the wirebot could carry food from kitchen to tables in a robot restaurant.
A simple gripper under the wirebot could be programmed to pick up objects from the floor of a kids room in a pattern which blindly covers all open floor space. All objects could be dropped in a hamper, or held in front of a camera for machine identification and then sorted into the appropriate bins. What to get kids excited about robots? Done!
Delivery of product, food, snacks, or anything inside a large hall or event field could be automated and traffic avoided. Guiding people from point a to point b could also be more safely and practically done by wirebots than by quadcopters as has been proposed.
See instructions for the current state of attempts to print this thing.