User:Odoulorenzo/ENES100/My Work P2

Project Goal
Create a crankshaft system that allows the mechanical movement of strandsBeest.

Week's Assignment
1. Gather information on strandBeest and crankshaft

2. Read past project's tutorials and work on strandBeests

3. Create a work plan to build a strandBeest crankshaft

Summary of Work Done
1. Gathered information on crankshaft and strandBeest 1 2 3

2. Read tutorials from past projects on strandBeest 1 2 3 4

3. Investigated the mechanisms of strandBeests 1 2 3 and crankshafts 1

Week's Report
All the information gathered from past projects I considered the building of a crankshaft as maximum priority for the beginning of this project. I watched videos and read information on how to build a crankshafts and the mechanism involving the legs of a strandbeest in order to understand their interaction for a successful reproduction of the system.

Week's Assignment
1. Build a crankshaft made out of LEGO pieces

Summary of Work Done
Built a crankshaft out of LEGOs.

Week's Report
When using the LEGO pieces to build the crankshaft, as the pieces are fixed at 90 degrees only 180 degrees sections of the crankshaft were able to be built. Since with the original size of the pieces used the crankshaft had too much extra space in between the pieces to hold the legs, I decided to place the pieces closer together and cut the parts that would affect the mobility of the design.

Week's Assignment
1. Test the crankshaft for work-ability and flaws in the design

2. Make the necessary repairs to the design

3. Determine a material to use for the legs of strandbeest

Summary of Work Done
1. Looked over and fixed crankshaft's design flaws

5. Compiled data on the different types of materials to use to build the legs of a strandbeest 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Week's Report
After fixing the design flaws to the crankshaft with sections at 180 degrees, I, once again, read about the mechanism of stranbeest, but with a major focus on the function and maneuver of crankshaft in the system. As a result of all the collected information, I concluded that each crankshaft section must be located at a 120 degrees form the other in order for the strandbeest be able to walk. Since the manufactured produced LEGOs used for this design come set at 180 degrees, I decided to use other LEGO pieces, which rather than attaching to the one another I just simply can glue together using the help of hot glue. In the building of this second crankshaft I will be using some smaller pieces from those used in the first built crankshaft, as a way to decrease weight and stress to the legs of the strandbeest. Thus far I have decided to use prototype straw legs in order to do preliminary testing for the strandbeest. The final material to use in this project may or may not vary depending on the results from preliminary findings. In case that more weight is needed to be added to the straw less to release it's stress from the weight of the crankshaft, I figured that I could add some powdery substance, such as sand or flour, and seal the ends with hot glue. First however, the straw legs will be build without any addition of other materials.

Week's Assignment
1. Use LEGO piece to build a crankshaft of sections at 120 degrees

2. Test the newly build crankshaft

3. Create a tutorial for building a crankshaft

Summary of Work Done
1. Built a crankshaft prototype with sections 120 degrees from each other

Week's Report
During this week I built a prototype crankshaft of the form and structure of the crankshaft to be build. This prototype served as a method for understanding the placement and position of the crankshaft pieces. After analyzing the reason as to why the crankshaft wouldn't work I realized that the pieces I use were straight pieces, therefore when moved at different angles their center will change with the piece. What I did was to link two LEGO pieces together and set them at 120 degrees, like this allowing the addition of a third piece without changing the center of the crankshaft. While looking for other pieces I came across a new piece that i haven't seen before and I believe it would be very beneficial in reducing the general weight of the crankshaft.

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