Raptor: 3-D printed prosthetic hand

I designed the Raptor to be a basic terminal prosthetic hand that could be 3-D printed. There are only 4 pieces that are printed and they can be made at a home printer.

I designed the Raptor hand for a design competition on GrabCAD. As of this post the competition is still up.

If you would like to print the Raptor yourself here are all the files that you need

If you would like me to design a custom application prosthetic for you feel free to contact me.

Here was a demo of the prototype. I used shockcord and paracord as the cables which is way to bulky. In future I will likely use small steel cable a maybe just rubber bands.

Portable Event Solar Phone Charger

This solar phone charger is designed to be deployed at outdoor events like weddings and concerts so that people can charge their phones. Normally extension cords or large cumbersome solar umbrellas have to be set up to fill this need.

The one issue is that people have to supervise their charging and the charger itself can be stolen. In a future iteration I will add essentially a port for a bike lock and locking compartments for phones to sit in while charging.

I would also like to spread the usb ports around the  edges more so that they are not so condensed. It will change the experience from waiting in line to just walking up and plugging into your own space.

Jerry Personal Robot Kickstarter

Launched Jerry on Kickstarter a few days ago.

Jerry Multipurpose Home Robot Demo

I've been working for several months on the Jerry Project. He is finally ready to demo. This is the first video. I plan to have Jerry ready for sale near the end of 2016. From now on it is going to be a software development issue. All the hardware works just as expected. Jerry will first be released as an educational and hobby platform and within a year he will be in homes.

 If you would like to see more or watch the progress visit:
www.slantrobotics.com
Twitter
Facebook
Youtube

Microservo 3-D printed gripper

I found that there are really very few 3-D printed grippers available. So I made on. This one uses a microservo and two rubber bands to create an semi-adaptive gripper. The overall mechanism is based off of the gripper developed at Slant Robotics. But at this moment the amount of material used is a bit large, so I may create a more minimal structure.

Download on GrabCad

Slant Robotics

I have formed a new branch of Slant Concepts...Slant Robotics. The "Jerry" Project is going to become an official product. Jerry is now being built in Nampa, Idaho with a projected reveal of a finished product at the end of April. Jerry is going to be the home robot that everyone has imagined.

Be sure to follow the project of Twitter or Facebook.

Another Book - The Everything Machine

Finished up another book. "The Everything Machine" is a quick look at the current state of the art of robotics. It's a discussion of where robots are and where they are going.

Buy it on Amazon

Jerry Project: Update

Here are some pictures of a couple final prototype designs for Jerry, a low cost, vision-based, personal robot. I also added the first official teaser video. The real prototype will be soon to follow.

The Jerry personal robot with all actuated components opened and extended

The Jerry personal robot with arm retracted and an added screen for improved telepresence functionality.

Incurve Spherical Robot

For my senior design project I was the chief designer of the internal mechanisms of a spherical robot. Both actuated degrees of freedom have a full range of motion unlike any other spherical robot built. Additionally the team was able to design an original non-holonomic controller for the omni-directional system we were pursuing.

The photos below show the design progression that the system took. All the CAD seen is my own original work (Except for the shell in the final image). I apologize some concepts were abandoned before they could be completed.

Original Concept and Outline

Full Aluminum Truss-Like Structure

Hybrid Wood-Aluminum with Linear Actuator

Hybrid Material with Offset Planes of Rotation

Final Design Designed for Controller Simplification

Final Design of the Incurve Spherical Robot

Jerry

This is a project that I have been working on for some time. Jerry is my foray into personal robotics. He will begin as a telepresence robot and then develop into an AI robot home assistant. A quick conceptual design is shown in the rendering below.

jotted - a place to send my stories

I have been writing short stories and pieces of books for sometime. I decided I should put some, or even all of them out into the world.

"jotted" is the place where I will post sections of books and parts of stories. I hope that people will enjoy them or help me improve them.

And who knows, maybe after awhile I'll just compile jotted into a book like I did "The Space Economy."

Illusion Tee-Shirt - Because I Can

I was taking a cognitive psychology class. In class we were running through all kinds of illusions. I wondered if there were any shirts out there with good illusions on them, I mean they would be great conversations starters, right. I couldn't find a tee-shirt with an illusion. So I thought I would make a few.

I discovered TeeSpring, which is awesome because it is a new platform and was fun to just try out. I chose the Rabbit-Duck illusion for the first tee-shirt, because it was quick and already set for black and white.

This was a project that literally took less than an hour to do. There is now a Rabbit-Duck illusion t-shirt in the world.

Prose Aloud - Website for audio poetry

Prose Aloud is a new project I've started to create audio versions of famous poetry. This came about when I realized that there are few to no good recordings of poetry. Also I needed to expand my cultural awareness into that area for a little while.

Below is the first compilation of poems that I read.

Just Playing

"Just Playing" is a YouTube channel I started to present videos of my original piano songs. I basically improvise for a few minutes on the piano while I'm practicing.

There is a lot of piano stuff on YouTube, but I might as well maximize the value of my time playing the piano by publishing some of what I do.

WhiteCapStudios

WhiteCapStudios is a new podcast channel that I started on SoundCloud to try comedy and music publishing. I have some short stand-up comedy routines as well as original piano songs.

See WhiteCapStudios

The Space Economy Book

I finally collected all of the essays I wrote, along with Dan Hermes, into a book. "The Space Economy" is on Kindle and will be available in print. It is my little contribution to the industry until I start building hardware for it.

The Space Economy on Amazon

My Tedx Talk

I was recently invited to give a Tedx Talk at my university. I ended up giving almost two talks in one. The first has part of the talk deals with how problem solving by humans is obsolete and inefficient. The second part deals with how if humans are not meant to be solely problem solvers what good are we and what is our secret sauce that will allow us to remain relevant?

SlantWatch

Another conceptual design. How I would make a smartwatch.

Smartwatches do not need to have large displays. In fact, the less obtrusive they are the better. So the SlantWatch has a thin profile.

Straps on smartwatches are also a waste of space. For something so dependent on battery more space needs to be made for the battery. So the Slant watch would house that battery in one half of the rigid cuff. The other half would hold excess electronics.

The entire piece is semi-solid. The flexible points would be near the top of the cuffs before the screen. This allows the watch to take some extra abuse while being put on.

The watch uses a flexible OLED display, with a solid glass capacitive touch screen. Though E-paper would also be an option.

The interface would be like a wheel on the wrist. As you scroll through apps you would eventually circle back around to the beginning. In order to change categories or menus one would side-swipe, basically "changing the wheel."

In a future version it would be great if the display could go all the way around the cuff, making it effectively seamless, no mater what angle your wrist is at.

Wrist Multitool

Over spring break from school I decided to build a multitool that I could wear in a shop were it would always be quick and easy to grab and use for just about anything.

The Wrist Tool is an early version. I have adapters on it for screwdrivers and socket wrenches. The top also has an english hex set cut in it. And what tool would be complete without a bottle opener.

The entire thing is 3-D printed. In the future I'll add holders for the screwdriver set on the inside of the tool.

Useful Robots

I recently started a blog called 'Useful Robots.' In it I outline robots that can be purchased and used by anyone who wants one.

The reason I made 'Useful Robots" was because there was really no place online that gives the average consumer or businessman an insight into what automation solutions are available to them. So I give profiles, not on research or the next big thing, but on the robotic mowers, or factory assistants, or vacuums that are ready to use right out of the box. It isn't cluttered with what a nerd would love, just with what an average person needs to know to buy.