Steam powered robots?

The ten minute runs are a drag, IMO.
Good for art, bad for robotics. Or am I being
overly pessismistic?

I am unsure if it's a fuel capacity limitation, a
water limitation, or what.

In all honesty, I had considered steam as
a source of propulsion or energy for robots,
but always came to the conclusion that the
fuel+water weight was too much of a limiting
factor, at least for smaller robots.

I must search this group and see if there
have been previous threads on propulsion/
energy sources and their ramifications,
scale, etc.

TTFN,
     Tarkin

10 minutes is actually pretty good. In 10 minutes most robots get
hopelessly lost.


Doctor Lovelace did. Here's just the leg (can't find a photo of the full
thing) of a giant steam-powered spider robot thingie...

http://www.sinemafanatik.com/wildwildwest/barry3.jpg

...with Will Smith sitting on it.

-- Gordon

LOL, that's exactly what I was thinking - this shows that the Wild,
Wild
West wasn't that far fetched, just a little ahead of it's time.

Can't wait to see 40' tall steam-powered mass transit walkers, complete
with
the twanging cable sounds.

Eddy

    --There's a reason why locomotives haul a tender behind! :-) Maybe
make a horse-and-wagon sort of bot and you'll get longer range..

--
        "Steamboat Ed" Haas         :  I'll have the roast duck      
        Hacking the Trailing Edge!  :  with the mango salsa...
                          www.nmpproducts.com
                   ---Decks a-wash in a sea of words---

I have revisited the site for my own
edification, and gathered data
from three of three projects-
the tank, the crab, and the
tank/spider. Of these, only the first
tank had the hard timing data -10 to
15 minutes, limited by, as I had
suspected, the amount of water it
was able to carry.

Thinking back to my first couple of
BEAM walkers, 10 minutes was
pretty generous- it was one the things
I had wanted to tweak before pausing
that particular hobby.

I had thought that perhaps ICE's or
mini-turbines would provide a better
source of energy- after all, steam vehicles
aren't all the rage for personal transport- although
I have seen a wood-burning steam-driven
runabout that someone in Australia had built.
In any event, they were just thoughts.

I guess I am biased towards batteries for
powering robots, as the technology is well
understood, widely (and cheaply) available,
and density seems to be improving monthly.

My ideas about energy sources for robots
tend to parallel trends in the auto-industry.
Technologies like hybrids and fuel-cells
seem like they would scale down well,
although it will be a while (IMHO) before
fuel cells are both small and cost-effective.

I joined this group to learn, and I appreciate your
input.

TTFN,
       Tarkin

that's because it's open loop...  The water
blows away as steam.

Put a condensor on the steam output
of the steam engine.  Condensor = radiator.

Put a few peltier chips on the radiator.  These
convert heat to electricity (inefficient, but it works)
Have the peltier chips power a fan, that blows
past the condensor....

You would need a water injector on the boiler,
to overcome boiler pressure.  Close the loop
and you increase your runtime.

Have two boilers, one for locomotion, one for
electricity generation for servos, receiver, etc...
Run a small turbine with boiler#2

Rich

    --Hey I like the idea of the Peltier condenser! BTW I met the guy
yesterday at the Makers Fair and took a pile of photos; neat conversions
he's done..

--
        "Steamboat Ed" Haas         :  I'll have the roast duck      
        Hacking the Trailing Edge!  :  with the mango salsa...
                          www.nmpproducts.com
                   ---Decks a-wash in a sea of words---

    --Found it. The kits are made by an outfit called Gakken and the
series of kits are called "Mechamo". Here's a good write-up of crabfu:
http://www.gorobotics.net/The-News/Hobbyiest/Steam%11powered-Walkers%2C-Centipedes%2C-and-Crabs/


--
        "Steamboat Ed" Haas         :  I'll have the roast duck      
        Hacking the Trailing Edge!  :  with the mango salsa...
                          www.nmpproducts.com
                   ---Decks a-wash in a sea of words---

Putting aside for the moment the highly controversial topic of the
practicality of steam power in robotics applications,  I have to point
out that this guy's work is just plain COOL!  I mean, that
LocoCentipede is like something out of a Tim Burton movie!

They are toys, after all,
Don

True enough. And the OP did just say
he was 'inspired'.

I learn a lot from spirited debate, so I can
come off as a little antagonistic. I
certainly do not wish to offend; I only
wish to learn.

They are cool. It'lkl be interesting to see if
he gets the crab or the spider/tank
working.

TTFN,
      Tarkin

    --The centipede and other contraptions that he's put steam engines
onto are commercially available kits from another outfit, but I don't have
the URL handy. Will dig around a bit..

--
        "Steamboat Ed" Haas         :  I'll have the roast duck      
        Hacking the Trailing Edge!  :  with the mango salsa...
                          www.nmpproducts.com
                   ---Decks a-wash in a sea of words---

Which was my whole point.  Sometimes I like to make robots that actually
do something useful, sometimes, it just works as functional art.  I've
always wanted a steam powered robot, now I have a target to shoot for!

DLC

Don wrote:

--
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Dennis Clark          TTT Enterprises
www.techtoystoday.com
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