Untitled Lifter Ant

Experimental 4-bar lifter (2023)

This was a project I started doing for extra credit in my design of machinery class, which talks all about linkages. I figured it was the perfect time to design a 4-bar lifter robot.

The linkage lengths were designed by first deciding that the lifting fork must sit at an angle greater than 45 degrees relative to the ground at the end of the stroke. I then used a small program I had developed in TIC-80 to visualize link lengths and choose lengths to achieve this goal. The base link (the chassis) was 4 inches, the powered link would be 2 inches, the unpowered rocker link would be 2.8 inches, and the distance between the two pivot points on the lifting link would be 3 inches.

The robot was then designed in PTC Creo to utilize components I already had on hand. The wedge was designed using the sheet metal tools, after which it was flattened and turned into a DXF to be plasma cut on the university's machine.

Parts

• Botkits_Wheels
• 22mm_Gearmotors
• 9g servo High torque metal gear variant
• Fingertech_Switch
• some kind of dual brushed speed controller