‘Cyber Snail’
A
total of about 10 hours to build.
Costs:
£24 for a motorised gyroscope from Hamleys toy shop, 12 p for the wooden beads for the eyes, + radio control
The shell is two bases from a toilet
roll holder
Cyber snail, “A snail but not sluggish!”
These
vibrations are given direction by angled brush bristles
on the base, effectively moving over 10,000 legs to make
30 steps each every second …. About 1/3 million tiny
paces a second!
Originally
the gyroscope also steered the snail automatically
because any deviations from a straight line result in
precession of the gyro, which gave a change of weight
distribution over the bristles which in turn corrected
the deviation. It’s a bit like a skier leaning
harder on one ski to turn.
However
for its 2nd appearance in 2003 it was upgraded
and fitted with a ‘beard’ of angled bristles
that were turned by a radio controlled servo to give
active steering.
In it first appearance in 2002 it took 2min 45 seconds to do 15m (being thrashed by Scuttle in the next lane).
However in the 2003 games with its improved steering it took just 1 min 40, fast enough to win the bronze medal and a reputation as the fastest snail in the world (at about 0.33 mph!)
It
was made in the garage at weekends, with the larger brass
(weights to bring it up to 1kg minimum weight) made in an
engineering workshop.
It
is an upside down version of a patented biscuit and cake
handling device that Adrian designed a few years back for
putting Mr Kipling cakes into lanes (see
‘Doormat’ lane aligning example on this site).
www.bbc.co.uk/science/robots/techlab/sub_showcase.shtml
