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Page 60 - Toucpad robotics C11
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    Rotating: When you click on a shape, curved arrows appear around it. You can click and drag these arrows to rotate
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                      the shape around the X, Y, or Z-axis. This allows you to orient the shape in any direction. For instance, to place a
                      robot’s motor mount at a specific angle, you would use these rotational tools.
                  Designing Different Structures
                      A Robotic Chassis: You  could start  with a flat rectangular prism  as the base
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                      of the chassis. Then, you could add four cylindrical shapes for motor mounts at
                      the corners, rotating them 90 degrees if needed. You could then use the "Hole"
                      feature (a special tool in Tinkercad that subtracts one shape from another) to
                      create openings for wheels and other components.

                                                     A Simple Gripper: To design a basic two-finger gripper for a robotic arm, you
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                                                     might create two long, thin blocks as the fingers. You would then use the rotation
                                                     tools to orient them correctly and the move tool to position them so they are
                                                     aligned to grasp an object. By combining these shapes, you create a new, more
                                                     complex structure.

                  u   A Sensor Mount: You could design a custom enclosure for a sensor by creating a box shape and then using the
                      "Hole" feature to create an opening for the sensor to fit in. You would use all six degrees of freedom to precisely
                      position the opening and any screw holes for mounting.
                  Tinkercad’s simplicity allows students to grasp these fundamental principles intuitively. By actively moving, scaling, and
                  rotating shapes, they are directly applying the six degrees of freedom that govern all rigid body motion, a concept that is
                  directly applicable to a robot’s physical movement.

                                        The Collapsing Robot
                                        After working  solidly  for  10 hours in a warehouse, a delivery  robot  suddenly  collapsed
                                        mid-shift.  The team  was bewildered  but  simply  restarted it  after a quick  “oil-and-battery
                                        break.” They joked about giving it a medal for “Longest Shift (No Pay).”
                   actual funny
                      incidents         Learning: Machine endurance has limits; regular maintenance keeps them going.

                  Planar Mechanisms: Motion in Two-Dimensions

                  A Planar Mechanism is a mechanical system where all the links and          Joint 2                Link 2
                  joints move within a single, two-dimensional plane. This means their
                                                                                         Link 1
                  motion is confined to a flat surface, with no movement in or out of
                  that plane. While this might seem like a limitation, it simplifies the
                  design and control of these systems, making them highly effective for               Joint 1     End of arm
                  a wide range of applications.
                  The  motion  of a planar  mechanism  can be fully  described  by the
                                                                                                     Link 0
                  positions  and orientations  of its  links on a flat (X-Y)  plane. This
                  simplifies the mathematical analysis, as we only need to deal with
                                                                                                      Base
                  two  translational  degrees  of freedom  (moving  along the  X and Y
                                                                                                            Ground
                  axes) and one  rotational  degree  of freedom  (turning around  the
                  Z-axis, which is perpendicular to the plane).

                  Key Components of a Planar Mechanism
                  A planar mechanism, like any mechanism, consists of a few basic components:

                      Links: These are the rigid bodies that make up the mechanism’s structure. They can be of various shapes and sizes.
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                  Touchpad Robotics - XI

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