Lego technic building machine MOC collab

[SNIPE]

Hi,

This thread is asking about the feasibility of having an NXT controlled machine built from technic, which can be programmed to actualy build lego technic mocs itself. I will need to collaborativley design it due to several reasons.

I have a lot of technic so that's not so much a problem. The NXT(s) will be controlled via a PC. This has a veriety of benefits, to name a few:

• MOCs, modules, or sets can be reproduced automatically.
• Building can be done by the machine, whilst designing another part of your MOC.
• New building techniques can be found by telling the machine to try and put random bricks together and then we'll see what comes out.
• The limits of how complex/compact MOCS can be, can be pushed towards or met by using algorithms to calculate the best layout of parts, and by collaborativley building the machine itself!
• + Many more

I know that this machine will be absolutley massive but that's cool with me, I have space for it. Some problems that will need to be solved are things such as accuratley positioning and pushing in pins, axles, and connectors.Maybe pnumatics will have enough force to do that, and using daisy chained worm gear drives can make it slow enough to be accurate in the positioning of parts.

Perhaps to get the ball rolling we could just make a machine which positions a pin inline with a pinhole. What do you guys think?.

Edited February 27, 2018 by SNIPE

[mocbuild101]

5 hours ago, SNIPE said:

This thread is asking about the feasibility of having an NXT controlled machine built from technic, which can be programmed to actualy build lego technic mocs itself

There have been some Lego building machines before, but they have only used standard bricks:

MakerLegoBot: http://www.battlebricks.com/makerlegobot/

Lego Duck Maker: http://robotics.benedettelli.com/lego-duck-maker/

5 hours ago, SNIPE said:

Maybe pnumatics will have enough force to do that

Yes, they have plenty enough force for that.

6 hours ago, SNIPE said:

and using daisy chained worm gear drives can make it slow enough to be accurate in the positioning of parts.

I don't think that would be necessary, NXT motors have an accuracy of 1 degree, which translated to linear motion via gear racks, will be plenty accurate enough. 

6 hours ago, SNIPE said:

Perhaps to get the ball rolling we could just make a machine which positions a pin inline with a pinhole. What do you guys think?

That shouldn't be too difficult, I think the main problem would be getting the robot to hold the pin hard enough to push it in, yet have it loose enough to let go once it's in.

[The Southern Brickfan]

that would be quite a feat of engineering and programming, but probably doable. ?!!

[Carsten Svendsen]

If you can make it, go for it, but I have my doubts. You will need a massive amount of LEGO and you will need a massive amount of NXT's, or you control it all from a pi or something instead.

In any case, you will need a three-axis robotic arm with a vacuum to pick parts, and another arm for putting them in. 

I'm not sure if you fully understand the complexity a project like this takes. To program it, you would have to load the digital file into your program and have an AI figure out in which order to put it all together. Something not even LDD or any other automatic instruction creator can do properly. You would have to design your own software essentially. Maybe even your very own firmware for the NXT's if you go that route.

An easier option would be to manually program XYZ cordinated for every single piece, but that would get tedious very quickly. 

Good luck