Hello All, it's been awhile since i've posted and with good reason. I have been busy with the launch of the XLR-ONE V2 robot and it has been a success. The robot has been moving well. I also have been getting feedback that owners wish it was a bit smaller because the V2 is over 30" tall and is a hefty bot. They say that because of it's size they have to have a large area to work with it and use it the right way. So after hearing the feedback i went back and made a smaller version. Now I was going to cheat and just reduce the stl files down by 30% and be done. But I didnt want to ruin the quality i worked so hard to achieve. So i designed the Mini from the ground up! All new drive system,sensor ports,Lighting, wider base for better stability and most important, a new arm system. The V2 is great but the limits to his arm movement always bugged me. The arms would move up and down and bend at the elbow and twist at the wrist and bicep. But what was missing was the side movement, being able to lift his arms like an airplane. The problem with the V2 was the weight against the servo. It was too much once the arm was fully extended out to the side. But with the mini, it was easy because the size was reduced, but the servos were the same. With a little tweaking to the shoulder design and a few test prints later the New Multi-Joint system was designed! The arms moved so smoothly and looked really cool. The V2 had another small issue, the parts were glued together. This meant if a servo died and needed to be replaced the whole section would need to be replaced. This was an issue i was working on but with the Mini it was resolved much quicker. I designed all the parts to be used with 1/8" thick screws and nuts which made assembly and dis assembly easy. I also developed a clip system to be able to add and remove parts by just unclipping and adding another. I call them X-Clips. They are attached to each part of the arm from the shoulder down to the claw. They work great and add to the look of the robot. Last but not least is the XL-Connect system. This is a wiring system which allows the parts of the robot to be removed without the need of tools or cutting wires. A simple design, 6 pin plug sysem delivers the power and the loging info down from the controller through the arm down to the wrist. I will post a video to better explain the system. Well thats it for now, i will be posting updates and info as i go. Also, if you want to WIN a XLR-ONE Mini of your own, goto to my Youtube channel and subscribe to enter, winner will be announced Sept.15,2015. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5F0EFZEnDE65CH-ggwm2Ww
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://community.robotshop.com/robots/show/the-xlr-one-mini-robot-plateform
