2010 winners > 17+ years > Transformer Robot
Nicholas Mabey
Transformer Robot
King's College, Auckland
18 years
If you're looking for a project that's about mechanical design, balance, torque and sequence - look no further than Transformer Robot. Using an ARDUINO open-source development board, and a separate motor board, control is given to the eight servo motors that keep the robot moving.
I wanted to do something for my technology project that was challenging. My teacher made a joking comment to someone else about a transforming robot and it just appealed to me. After that I wasn’t willing to do anything else.
I had to learn a lot to make it – everything from desiging components on a 3D CAD system to making them on a rapid prototyping machine, lathe, milling machine and a variety of other tools, as well as a fair bit about circuitry and micro controllers. The hardest part was designing how it was all going to fit together and move so that parts could move without inhibiting the movement of others.
