The Cactus Magazine - Chrome Dino IRL part 3

The Cactus Magazine - Chrome Dino IRL Part 3
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The obstacles magnet onto the 3D printed conveyor belt, and if they just rode around in a loop the game would be the same sequence forever. So at the end of the belt, these ramps passively pull each obstacle off and drop it into a ten-sided indexing wheel. Every drop ratchets the wheel forward one slot, which pushes the next obstacle up to the top of the queue, ready to go back into the game.
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The original plan was a gantry-style pick-and-place that would grab obstacles and set them on the moving belt, but the obstacles are all different sizes, so it would've needed a vision system just to find them, plus a gripper synced to a moving conveyor. The indexing wheel does the same job with fewer moving parts.
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The end goal is three of these magazines side by side with a randomizer picking which one serves up the next obstacle, so the sequence never repeats. Stay tuned for that!
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#engineezy #engineering #mechanicalengineering #mechanisms #chromedino