We decided on making a snake as soon as we heard what the project was even though we knew it would be harder to make than some of the other movements. We created a VERY rough prototype, which had no movement and didn’t look much like a snake, using cardboard and popsicle sticks. We laser cut some circles and stuck a string through it, and that was our prototype. Next, we planned out how we wanted to make the snake slither. My partner found something called a trammel of Archimedes, which was our initial solution. After planning, Brandon created a 3D snake chain model and I worked on a trammel. The trammel ended up not working because we couldn’t find a way to have multiples of them next to each other. They were simply too big and complicated. We spent the next couple of days brainstorming ways to make the slither effect. Then we figured it out! We attached a popsicle stick to a surbo with a toothpick so it could spin on the homemade axle type hinge. We attached a stick to the popsicle stick and made a track for it so that it went up and down. After testing and adding support, we duplicated the structure 3 times, and set our snake chain on the sticks. We added a 4th stick to prop the head and up to make it look like the cobra had its eye on something. Finally, I went absolutely berzerk with adding natural elements while Brandon coded the surbos. Additional battery packs were needed to power the snake due to the fact that we used 3 surbos. We tested the final product on the last day and it worked perfectly!
There were many ups and downs in this project. The main problem we had was trying to figure out a slithering motion. We tried out the trammel of Archimedes, but that didn’t work out due to lack of space. We eventually created the popsicle contraption that was described above. One component that went well on the first try was the natural elements. These elements made our project look so amazingly natural. If we hadn’t 3D printed the snake it would have looked perfect. The snake also turned out very well, but there isn’t much that could have gone wrong with it. It was the perfect size, shape, but most importantly it wiggled smoothly. If I redid this project the only thing that I would do is make the snake look more like a real one. It was the only fake looking part of our project.
My partner and I worked very well together because we spread the work out evenly and capitalized on our strengths. I was in charge of creating the popsicle contraptions, making the whole thing look natural, and assembling it. Brandon was in charge of coding the surbos, and making the 3D model of the snake. We both worked diligently and helped each other when it was needed. My group worked well, and we stayed on task until the project was done and we were satisfied.
I honestly think my group hit every single standard. For INNOVATE, we had to solve the problem of how we were going to make the snake slither. The EXPLORE standard was hit because we used so many different ideas to attempt to make the snake slither. We PLANNED very well by going to the Think Tank to create our ideas out of legos before making them real. Also for the PLAN standard, we created the snake as a chain so it could wiggle. We DESIGNED the look of our snakes environment by creating the inside of a tree for the snake to sit on. We made our project look very natural and work well. The MAKE standard was very easy because we only used the amount of resources we needed, and we made sure that we needed every aspect of our creation for it to work and look natural while working. For the CRAFT standard, we had good construction choices when we created popsicle supports to prevent the chance of it collapsing. We TESTED our project a ton throughout the process to make sure that when we are done we didn’t need to fix or alter anything. I met the EVALUATE standard by being one of the few people who spoke about how other people could have improved their project. We made great use of our time for the ENGAGE standard, and finished our project the day it was due, which shows that we did all that we could for the project in the allotted time. This whole page is demonstrating the SHARE standard.
Project proposal
Title: Natural Movement Machine
Sketches:
Materials: Popsicle sticks, Hot Glue, Bark, Leaves, Grass, Surbos, Wiring, 3D printer, tooth picks, and wood
Process: First, we created prototype, which had no movement and didn’t look much like a snake, using cardboard and popsicle sticks. Next, we planned out how we wanted to make the snake slither. After planning, Brandon created a 3D snake chain model. Then, we attached a popsicle stick to a surbo with a toothpick so it could spin on the homemade axle type hinge. We attached a stick to the popsicle stick and made a track for it so that it went up and down. We duplicated the structure 3 times, and set our snake chain on the sticks. Later, we added a 4th stick to prop the head and up to make it look like the cobra had its eye on something. Finally, I went absolutely berserk with adding natural elements while Brandon coded the surbos. Then we tested our final product.
K- what we want our project to do
W- a natural looking movement
Q- how are we going to make the movement
Purpose- learn how to use surbos and motors
Define your done- My done is when we have a natural looking environment with a snake that can slither.
Inspiration- Those little wooden snake toys
C.D.E Blog -Eli Mather 