Air drop deployed robot

[Razor Concepts]

Requirements:

Robot fits in 4" diameter tube

Drops from a height of 1000'

Must travel 10meters after landing on ground.

Ground is tall grass (6" high), along with other small obstacles.


Currently my idea is to use a single-track design. Like a tank, but there is only one tread. A parachute is used to slow the robot down, and once on the ground it releases the parachutes and chugs away with the single tread. Currently the problem with that design is that if it lands on its side, it will not work.

There has to be something to laterally stabilize it. I was thinking small poles stick out on the side, but is it possible that the grass will get caught on the poles and prevent the robot from moving?

[z.s.tar.gz]

Have the poles drop off too

[chelmi]

Crazy idea: inflate a balloon that will push the robot back on it's track. once the balloon reaches a given size it will hit a small pin and pop.
Maybe you can use a CO2 cartridge and an electrical valve?

[Razor Concepts]

Thanks for the ideas! So the dropping poles/balloon thing may work to get it oriented to begin with, however once the robot gets going it may tip over.... hmmm....

Now thinking of that, maybe the poles can retract and extend whenever. I have an accelerometer mounted inside the robot, so that it could detect when it is tipped over or not. That could work I guess, but may be getting overly-complicated.

[z.s.tar.gz]

The poles can be at an angle so that the grass just gets pushed out of the way!
That way they don't even need to pop off!

[cooldog]

ur going to want to put suspension on the robot to sustain some of the shock depending on how the tall grass and parachute work to slow it down.

[madsci1016]

I work for the Navy, coworkers had to  build a rover that is deployed from an AUV.

They used a design similar to this

http://www.lynxmotion.com/Category.aspx?CategoryID=111

Where the tires where bigger then the height of the robot, so it could land upside or rightside and still be able to travel.

They used rugged car window motors that seemed to hold up to being dropped.

Not sure if you could scale that down to fit in a 4" tube but hope it gives you some ideas.

[Razor Concepts]

I work for the Navy, coworkers had to  build a rover that is deployed from an AUV.

They used a design similar to this

http://www.lynxmotion.com/Category.aspx?CategoryID=111

Where the tires where bigger then the height of the robot, so it could land upside or rightside and still be able to travel.

They used rugged car window motors that seemed to hold up to being dropped.

Not sure if you could scale that down to fit in a 4" tube but hope it gives you some ideas.

Aha that reminded me of this Army robot:
http://www.recon-scout.com/graphics/rcspec_photo.jpg

I think that may be the best design because it is so simple and already tube shaped!

[madsci1016]

Looks perfect to me.  Glad i was able to jog your memory.

[Asellith]

Another idea have small triangles come out of the sides. curve the front end to prevent getting caught on anything. The angle can be very sharp just something to give it an unstable platform to potentially land on. Or better idea make it a curve that prevents the point from sticking into the ground. (another potential problem with the poles.) If you hit with sufficient force to bury them in the ground it may be hard to release them.

[T0110100101101101K]

If you really want a challenge, the link below shows a serpentine type of robotics that could possibly fit your specifications...and work like a snake in the grass
http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~biorobotics/serpentine/serpentine.html

This guy should join SoR!