3D printed robot slides under doors and travels up to 5.2m/s

3D printed robot slides under doors and travels up to 5.2m/s

STAR V3 is a sprawl tuned autonomous 3D printed robot developed by a group of researchers at the university of california, berkeley. it has been designed on a biomemetic system, whereby the agile, anthropod-like robot travels on a legged system (rather than the typical wheeled ones employed), offering enhanced performance advantages–it can quickly traverse whatever surface it travels across, with the ability to overcome obstacles that are three times taller than the hip height of the system itself. the six-legged robot also has the capacity to the slide across the floor at a speed of up to 5.2 metres per second.

the acrobatic movements of the STAR V3 is a result of its spoke wheel legs. each side of its body has three of these with a drive that is distributed from a single motor. a constant mechanical 60 degree rotational phase offsets between the neighbouring legs thus reducing the aerial phase and collision with the ground of the robot. the angles between the limbs and the main body forms the sprawl angles, from which both sides are actuated symmetrically through a single motor and mechanism to insure an overall identical stretch.

conceived to be produced using rapid manufacturing, STAR’s body core, motor housing, spur gears and legs are all 3D printed using a project 3000 machine which has an approximate accuracy of 0.05mm, with the resulting parts easily assembled (within about 30 minutes) and replaced when needed.