MECHANICAL ENGINEER
HERMES Flywheel (MIT Biomimetics Robotics Lab)
About the Project
This project was made in collaboration with Joao Ramos of the MIT Biomimetics Robotics Lab for the HERMES Project. HERMES is a humanoid robotics platform controlled by person wearing an exoskeleton. I worked on designing a reaction wheel balancing system for the Little HERMES robot (a miniature version of the full sized HERMES).
Design
The reaction wheel balancing system consisted of an aluminum ring supported at three points: two by bearings, one by a the output of a DC brushless motor. The motor and bearings were mounted to a machined U-channel. To make the design as compact as possible, the system was designed such that the wheel wrapped around the torso of Little Hermes, passing over the top and between the legs. The wheel itself was driven using a friction drive.
Results
I successfully designed the reaction wheel assembly and manufactured a working prototype of it, which will likely be implemented into the Little Hermes robot in the future.
