Orion

Orion, The Great Hunter, is a ground based autonomous vehicle. My brother, Jon and I are creating Orion as an entry for the Robo-Magellan competition. It will also become a general purpose experimentation platform.

Early Chassis

I finally got enough pieces to put the chassis together. It uses axles and gearboxes from a ClodBuster that I picked up on eBay. The overall length of the chassis rails is 24" Bigger...

Top View

Orion will have 4 wheel drive and 4 wheel steering. The top view shows both the front and rear wheels turned (which allows for a tighter turning radius). Bigger...

Rear View

This shows a picture from the rear. Bigger...

Rear Gearbox

This shows the rear gearbox Bigger...

Linkage Mounts

This shows the linkage mounts that I made for mounting the lower links and the shocks. The shocks were from "Team Blue Star", also purchased on eBay. The white pieces are made from 1/4" Delrin plate. I also made my own links from 1/4" aluminum rod, and Dubro Monster Ball Links. Bigger...

Upper Link Pieces

The upper link mount that I made was inspired by the "G-made" verson. Bigger...

Assembled Upper Link

Here you can see the assembled upper link. Bigger...

Interesting Finish

The finish on the edge was rather, well, rough. This is what happens when you take a 1/2" cut all in one go on a Sherline. In this case it didn't affect the functionality so I didn't bother to make them again. Bigger...

Gearbox Stand

I made a stand to hold the gearbox when the wheels aren't present. The piece of wood in the middle supports the gearbox when it's not attached to the rest of the chassis. Bigger...

Gearbox in Stand

This shows the gearbox sitting in the stand. Bigger...

Wheel Extender Pieces

Here are the various pieces which make up the wheel extenders. The wheel extenders push the wheels out 3/4". This allows for a slightly tigher turning radius, and more importantly it will allow for a brake system to be installed (i.e. traction control). There is a photo which shows the brake mounted on a wheel extender. Bigger...

Gearbox Mounted

This shows the gearbox mounted on the chassis. Bigger...

Gearbox Mounted (another view)

Another view of the gearbox. The steering linkages on the ClodBuster are normally mounted on the front, which makes it reverse ackerman (in normal ackerman, the inside wheel turns more that the outside wheel). I installed an Agressor steering unit from Thunder Tech Racing to get back to normal ackerman. Unfortunately the supplied servo mount is incompatible with the way I mounted my shocks, so I need to make a new one. Bigger...

Heatsink

This shows the aluminum heatsink for the H-Bridges. If needed, I'll also add some heatsink pieces with fins. Bigger...

H-Bridges

This shows the H-Bridges, which are a pair of "Reactor RX50" H-Bridges from BD Micro (who don't appear to make these anymore). Bigger...


Home - Line Maze 2006

Copyright 2010 by Dave Hylands