“Hello! My name is Mario. Welcome you to a new lesson of “Tinkercad Robotics for School”, where you can learn how to use Tinkercad to create simple and easy fun machines!
Today’s challenge: we will create an Evil Zipline Robot! This little plastic machine can walk along a string or cable, sloth-style. I’m in love with this kind of machines since I was a kid and I saw this little bot in an episode of “The Wizard”, an 80’s TV series about a toys inventor. That inspired me to create a prototype one year ago, recycling a broken 3D pen and some 3D glasses. Also, there is a great zipline robot project by Tart Robotics, using Lego and some extra components.
What makes this project special is the following attributes:
Simplicity: the target is to teach design of a basic mechanism for a simple robot; so I wanted to keep the number and complexity of pieces at minimum. Also, the pieces may be reused or easily replaceable.
Fully 3D printed: no bolts, no nuts, no glue. Except for the gearbox, the power source, one zip-tie, and one little strip of mounting tape, almost everything was 3D printed.
Easy to design: in my first “Tinkercad Robotics for School”, I created two walking machines (before trying this project, I recommend you to visit that one). Well, the good news is that the components to build one of these robots now are part of the Shape Library (Beta) of Tinkercad! And the better news: we will use and modify some of these components to create this Zipline Robot. That will save us a lot of time. You can identify those shapes by the code “MCL WR” in the category “Vehicles & Machines”.
Customizable: the robot has available slots to place different accessories. I decided to go for “evilly weaponized character”. But if you want, you can make it look like a monkey or a spider.
Supplies:
1 Computer with access to Tinkercad
1 3D printer. Material: PLA. I’m using a Creality Ender 3 V2.
1 Gearbox “I” shape (like this one)
1 Battery holder for 2 AA batteries, with switch (like this one).
2 AA Batteries
Zip-ties
1 little strip of mounting tape.
Pliers (for removing support material)
Scissors (to cut the remaining zip-tie)
Flat screwdriver (in case you need to separate the pieces.)
OK, let’s start with the fun!”