From time to time it’s nice to do stuff without any higher reason than to have some fun. If there’s some kind of a story behind it, I am sure it would be in a device art category.
Within my job, I make various automation systems, but they are usually fully engineered to be reliable and also fully functional. That process usually takes days and months of dealing with intricate parts of planning, designing, fabrication, programming and eventually removing all the small kinks that separate the buggy prototype from the finished product.

This device was kinda similar since I still needed to design and fabricate, but the similarities stop here because in this case everything is done on a fly. I got an email from my friends in Radiona, they needed some kind of a robot that doesn’t need to be fully useful and functional, rather to have a funny way of explaining the complexities and problems while engaging in the field of robotics.

I wanted to make something silly, yet visually attractive and funny, but at the end somewhat functional. One of the first tings that came to my mind was a carrot chopping device, actually something that is quite common in the industry, except my version would be made from car parts and stuff laying around the garage.

The whole build has been done in three days – one for planning and gathering the material, one for fabrication, and one for the electronics and programming.
Doing things on the fly and without any blueprint is in my case really liberating since I am usually under strict guidelines of the profession and my own pursuit for immaculate work, and this was like playing with Lego bricks, only that I’m using blades and saws that can cut me, a welding machine that can burn me and electricity that can shock me. Of course at the end there are safety rules that need do be followed in order to ensure the safety of the machine.

Sewer pipe being cut.

Making a motor bracket.

Soldering the wires.

Connecting wires to the repurposed electric drill motor.

For the the linear actuator I used planetary geared motor from a battery drill that is actually a repurposed from leftovers of the 15 kg fighting robot. Also, I used a leftover drawer guide and some plates and metal pieces left over from my Capri project.

The rear wiper motor is actually perfect since it doesn’t run in a full loop, it actually turns ninety something degrees, and than it goes back due it internal gearing, so there was no need to mount a bunch of sensors and electronics for direction changing.

There were a couple of micro switches installed to give the feedback to the Arduino controller. Their purpose was to tell the system in what position the linear guide is, and also if the main door was open.

All in all, for anybody that is interested in mechatronics, robotics, and automatic systems, this is a real thing engineered and fabricated on a fly that shows the most common parts in any system of this kind.

Some grinding action.

For the chopping blade I took a garden knife that is usually used for pulling out weeds, and for the chopping mechanism I used the Ford Sierra rear wiper motor (the same Sierra from which I pulled out V6 for my Capri), some quick welding and few holes later a chopping system was done.

A complied mechanism with the wooden frame was then shipped to Radiona, where they applied a lexan panel to protect the people from touching stuff while the unit is operational. They also did the programming of the system itself .

And now, let’s see how the actual exhibition looked like: