making of CuGo
1st iteration
The first module has the largest edge length(12 cm) and heaviest weight (330 gr). It is composed of servo with thee stall torque 4 kg*cm, Arduino wifi MKR1010, three Li-po 1000 mAh batteries, permanent magnets for connection and reflective stickers for optitracking. However, due to the large size and the heavy weight it was not able to connect more than two modules.
2nd iteration
The second module has the edge length of 7.5 cm, which made it half a weight from previous prototype. It is composed of dynamixel xl 320 servo with thee stall torque 4.5 kg*cm, Arduino wifi MKR1010, three Li-po 1000 mAh batteries, permanent magnets for connection and reflective stickers for optitracking. However, due to the large size and the heavy weight it was not able to connect more than three modules.
1st Iteration
2nd Iteration
3rd Iteration
The general purpose along the iteration is to decrease the edge length and weight of the module. Selection of actuator, MCU and power has been based on minimizing overall size. Thus, on 3rd iteration all batteries are removed from it.
joint_1
joint_2
joint_3
Connection between modules has been speculated by using permanent magnets, molex joints and interlocking system.
module needs to be charged for 4 hours for 6 hours use. At the end we removed all the batteries inside
trying four and five modules for the first time
transferring power from the board cells to modules on top of it
conductive surface to power modules.
using computer vision ArUco markers to track positions of passive blocks.
CuGo has chain architecture reconfigurable modular system, which each agent is connected to another agent. Adding up agents increases the number of degrees of freedom (DOF) of the chain. Each agent, with the size of 6x6x6 cm and weights 60 grams, has three discrete rotations; -120 degrees, 0 degrees and 120 degrees from the axis. The specific axis of the agent and its rotations allows agents to have on-grid movement regardless of the number of agents connected to the chain system, which can be connected at most six units. Each agent has an Esp8266 board and a dynamixel xl-320. It communicates with a central computer over 802.11 Wi-Fi.
