Spider robot with additively manufactured hip joints
Novel spider robot with hydraulic actuator legs based on a biological model
Description of the component:
The "Ohm crawler" walking robot, inspired by spiders, should have six to eight legs and be able to transport measuring devices, cameras or even supply elements in dangerous environments on uneven terrain that is no longer accessible with today's tracked and wheeled vehicles.
The "hip connection" component was manufactured using SLM on ConceptLaser M2 in aluminum AlSi10Mg. It is a load-bearing component of this new type of spider robot with hydraulic actuator legs based on a biological model.
Challenges:
The complex geometric relationships of the specified attachment parts (e.g. joint drives) in combination with a limited installation space make it difficult to design the components for the hip connection. Due to the small quantity of only 8 pieces, many manufacturing processes are ruled out. Ultimately, the only option apart from additive manufacturing is to produce the components using conventional milling processes. As the various surfaces are not fully accessible for milling, several complex individual parts (mostly made of solid material) would have to be produced. This would lead to a very high level of machining effort and therefore also to high material consumption.
Solution:
With the help of additive manufacturing, the component could be designed in such a way that only one component was required to fulfill the function. This greatly reduces the assembly work involved in assembling the robot. This also eliminates the need to adapt components to each other or to match them precisely. The complex component was subjected to an FEM analysis after the design process in order to ensure sufficient operational safety.
Conclusion:
Additive manufacturing ultimately made it possible to reduce the assembly effort while simultaneously saving on material and weight. This made it possible to achieve fast and economical production even for the small quantity of just 8 units.
| General information on the component: |
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| Material: Metal - aluminum AlSi10Mg Process: Powder bed fusion Value chain: Pre-processing, in-processing, post-processing Industry: Mechanical engineering Production quantity: 8 Manufacturer: Nuremberg Institute of Technology Georg Simon Ohm, Institute for Chemistry, Material and Product Development OHM-CMP, Laboratory for Product Development |