MECHANICAL ENGINEER
HERMES Inverted Pendulum (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 a person wearing an exoskeleton. In order to test a new balancing method for the robot, I designed and manufactured a flywheel test stand.
Requirements
The requirements for the flywheel were that I had to be able to easily adjust the length of the pendulum arm, the weight the flywheel was balancing, and the inertia of the flywheel.
Design
I used T-slotted framing to make the pendulum arm to allow for height adjustability. On one side of the arm, I mounted a brushless DC motor and encoder and a flywheel, consisting of aluminum spokes with steel rings mounted to either side. Additional rings could be added to increase inertia. On the other side of the arm, I had a weight mount that allowed weight plates to be added. The pendulum rotated inside a machined U-channel, with an absolute encoder used to track the arm position.
Results
I was able to successfully design and manufacture the flywheel, providing a platform for the other members of the lab to test a new balancing method for the HERMES robot.
