Home page / LegoŽ / Robotics / S14

Disclaimer
This page is not connected with or endorsed by The LEGO Company. LEGO, LEGOLAND, LEGO SYSTEM, LEGO TECHNIC, DUPLO, LEGO PRIMO and LEGO MINDSTORMS are trademarks of The LEGO Company.

S14
A CyberDog. You start, stop and drive it using a leash. I want to give credit to Hari Wiguna for this idea: I first heard of a leash-driven vehicle in one of his posts.

The direction of the head is detected using a rotation sensor, and there is a touch sensor that closes when you lift up the head of the dog to make it stop. It's really easy and funny to drive.

If you don't have any rotation sensor, you can substitute it with two touch switches that close when you turn the head left or right. You might also avoid any sensor at all mechanically coupling the head to a steering wheel, though I suspect the "feeling" when you drive it is quite different.

The legs are just to make it more attractive, actually S14 is a differential drive. The back legs are coupled to the right and left drive wheels (and motors). One of the drive wheels is linked to the front legs to move them too.

Front view. The head and the neck are both mobile in the up-dow direction.

To enhance the look of the dog I used red bricks for the "visible" part and black ones for the "hidden" structure. I like the way it resembles some of the Wile E. Coyote ACME robotic creatures :-)

Bottom view. The right wheel (bottom left in the picture) drives the front legs too.

Rear view.

The touch sensor that detects the neck movement.

Bruno, my sister's dog, intentionally ignores his robotic counterpart...

Send me an e-mail if you like. I understand Italian, English, Spanish.