Elysium Max Exoskeleton
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guitarpirate
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A bit of progress on lower forearm. Going slow because I discarded parts of original 2-d drawing and reconstructed partly from reference and partly from my own sense of design to give it a custom look. Also I spent 5 hours trying to fillet one of the edges, I bet that doesn't happen with people who actually know CAD.
Influence:
Influence:
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guitarpirate
Active Member
A bit more done, added some extra detail in the end slit (in the form of diagonal rails), could be used for mounting attached weapons, flashlights or lasersights when playing paintball. The rails on the elbow end have been normalized to 3mm (before there were teardrop shaped with 3mm to 4mm).
guitarpirate
Active Member
Mostly done with the base assembly, now need to connect the wrist bracelet, elbow connector, shockplate connector, and the shockplate itself. End-to-end length came out to 270mm, about the same as my lower arm bone.
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guitarpirate
Active Member
Got in 3D parts from RapidMade today (supposed to be easier to paint than Fineline ProtoGen material). The first ProtoGen part I received is the black shockplate, and all new parts are white.
guitarpirate
Active Member
3D preview on reference. Found that shoulder blade was too small, something I already suspected. Scaled 1.6, which destroyed lots of dependent geometry relationships. To be redone later.
Getting close to be being done with lower forearm.
Getting close to be being done with lower forearm.
guitarpirate
Active Member
Thanks 
The project has gone roughly like this so far:
However I noticed early on that it's turning out to be an intro to industrial design and robotics, so I am treating it as a learning experience on the way to building bipedal and quadrupedal robots rather than some extravagant costume because I have too much time on my hands. I want to build 5D Kinetic sculptures like the guy from Mona Lisa Overdrive (4th dimension being movement and 5th being artificial intelligence that guides movement). I feel like this might be my real calling as an artist so it's worth heavy investment.
Forearm "done enough" Time to start on the more complex elbow connector and figure out how to attach it, since I have no references for the "other side" of forearm.
The project has gone roughly like this so far:However I noticed early on that it's turning out to be an intro to industrial design and robotics, so I am treating it as a learning experience on the way to building bipedal and quadrupedal robots rather than some extravagant costume because I have too much time on my hands. I want to build 5D Kinetic sculptures like the guy from Mona Lisa Overdrive (4th dimension being movement and 5th being artificial intelligence that guides movement). I feel like this might be my real calling as an artist so it's worth heavy investment.
Forearm "done enough"
Time to start on the more complex elbow connector and figure out how to attach it, since I have no references for the "other side" of forearm.
guitarpirate
Active Member
More progress on the whole arm. Might actually get to hand & fingers by end of next week.
guitarpirate
Active Member
Thanks
Working out some details of elbows, and got to the hand & fingers as promised. Need to do a lot of adjustment and cleanup, make all the fingers different (appropriate) sizes and work more on adjusting geometry to reference.
I decided I liked hand & fingers from After Reset "Derrick Hawk" concept art a lot more than the movie suit, so I combined both together. I won't be using fingerless gloves as in the movie, instead the back of hand and all the fingers will be attached using small belts (basic kind used in school backpacks and tactical gear straps).
The forearm is going to have 6-7 pistons with brake cable running from each finger and the palm to flex/extend each part separately. So that weird mount on back of forearm will hold the pistons and the little clamps for the break cable just like what's used on bikes for breaking and switching gears.
Working out some details of elbows, and got to the hand & fingers as promised. Need to do a lot of adjustment and cleanup, make all the fingers different (appropriate) sizes and work more on adjusting geometry to reference.
I decided I liked hand & fingers from After Reset "Derrick Hawk" concept art a lot more than the movie suit, so I combined both together. I won't be using fingerless gloves as in the movie, instead the back of hand and all the fingers will be attached using small belts (basic kind used in school backpacks and tactical gear straps).
The forearm is going to have 6-7 pistons with brake cable running from each finger and the palm to flex/extend each part separately. So that weird mount on back of forearm will hold the pistons and the little clamps for the break cable just like what's used on bikes for breaking and switching gears.
guitarpirate
Active Member
Behind schedule on refining geometry to reference, but slowly getting there.
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guitarpirate
Active Member
Hand assembly getting close to completed, still need to resize individual fingers (looks bad when they are the same size). Also if I'm running cable, need channels and mounts for it inside every finger.
guitarpirate
Active Member
Produced a prototype out of air-dry clay, worked great for checking industrial design in-context. If I had either a 3D printer or 3D scanner this would have taken half a day instead of two full days, but I think it pays to spend time getting skills with basic materials. The whole thing came out way too small, every part needs 10mm+ extension because it doesn't fit on my hand. Comes close to fitting on my girlfriend's hand through so I took some poor quality pics (enjoy at a distance).
guitarpirate
Active Member
I looked at the 3D printing thread here a couple of weeks ago and found "Makerbot Replicator Z18" I kind of liked, but it sounds like the material (for instance ABS) is very expensive. So if it takes 7k for printer and another 3-4k for materials, it might be almost as expensive as getting it printed. But for the same price, external printing would be done on a huge high quality machine that my desk model couldn't match. Then there is maintenance and adjustments to take into account... Don't know, maybe I am misinformed.
(Managed to get some higher quality shots on my hand)
(Managed to get some higher quality shots on my hand)
guitarpirate
Active Member
Each finger is now a separate file and I updated lengths based on the shortcomings of the clay model. Next couple of days going to repeat the clay iteration to make another one with new lengths. Last thing is angles between each metacarpus bone, but I will verify that on the new model.
guitarpirate
Active Member
Second prototype produced - everything fits! Not perfectly, but I don't think I'll need another one before going to production. I like the cyber-industrial-horror look this thing has, I think it will be worth the work.
guitarpirate
Active Member
There is a bit of similarity to Advanced Warfare
[EDIT]
I went on to produce the first iteration of finger linking. In final product, the springs would be hidden inside pistons that look just like all other exo suit pistons but miniature. It was a smashing failure because even with springs attached, the cables sag during any kind of flexion in wrist movement and get tighter during extension. This morning I am going through anatomical references to figure out why real tendons don't have the same problem.
[EDIT2]
Noticed that tendon sheaths (synovial sheaths) route tendons very close to the bones. This keeps their routed lengths the same as the wrist is rotated, where in my case they are routed through only a 2-3 spots which lets them "choose the shortest path" between attachment points. The shorter paths causes them to sag during some orientations. Still not 100% sure if that's the only problem.
[EDIT]
I went on to produce the first iteration of finger linking. In final product, the springs would be hidden inside pistons that look just like all other exo suit pistons but miniature. It was a smashing failure because even with springs attached, the cables sag during any kind of flexion in wrist movement and get tighter during extension. This morning I am going through anatomical references to figure out why real tendons don't have the same problem.
[EDIT2]
Noticed that tendon sheaths (synovial sheaths) route tendons very close to the bones. This keeps their routed lengths the same as the wrist is rotated, where in my case they are routed through only a 2-3 spots which lets them "choose the shortest path" between attachment points. The shorter paths causes them to sag during some orientations. Still not 100% sure if that's the only problem.
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guitarpirate
Active Member
Found a suitable solution (surprisingly) in the form of Mueller Sport Care tape for sports applications, bought at Big 5. This tape is thin, sticks very well to skin, and can be reused several times before losing its adhesive property. Objects cemented onto it adhere well.
Mainly this part of design was so much trouble because I wanted to keep the exo-glove as light as possible, with as much skin exposed as possible. Otherwise I could have glued the sheaths to fingerless gloves and it would be done in 5 minutes. With the tape, you rip it off the skin and then slide the exo-glove off, keeping both its lite factor and ease of removal. Shots of the horrible-looking mockup with clay prototype parts:
I used Gardner Bender polyolefin heat shrink tubes (2.4mm) as the sheaths and guitar strings as the wires. I also tried a thin braid wire from Ace Hardware to see if that makes for less sagging, which I think it did. Anyway, 5 new parts that serve as routers are glued onto the Mueller tape with Krazy Glue, they keep wires close to skin as they exit the fingers. Then heat shrink tubes attached to more Mueller tape guide them to the palm, also keeping them close to skin. Ideally they will go from palm to the wrist using the same guiding tubes, and from wrist forward everything gets simple. I bunched the wrist guides together to match anatomy of real tendons which is yet another detail that helps keep their routing lengths the same during wrist rotations, moving pistons the same way no matter what the wrist is doing.
Mainly this part of design was so much trouble because I wanted to keep the exo-glove as light as possible, with as much skin exposed as possible. Otherwise I could have glued the sheaths to fingerless gloves and it would be done in 5 minutes. With the tape, you rip it off the skin and then slide the exo-glove off, keeping both its lite factor and ease of removal. Shots of the horrible-looking mockup with clay prototype parts:
I used Gardner Bender polyolefin heat shrink tubes (2.4mm) as the sheaths and guitar strings as the wires. I also tried a thin braid wire from Ace Hardware to see if that makes for less sagging, which I think it did. Anyway, 5 new parts that serve as routers are glued onto the Mueller tape with Krazy Glue, they keep wires close to skin as they exit the fingers. Then heat shrink tubes attached to more Mueller tape guide them to the palm, also keeping them close to skin. Ideally they will go from palm to the wrist using the same guiding tubes, and from wrist forward everything gets simple. I bunched the wrist guides together to match anatomy of real tendons which is yet another detail that helps keep their routing lengths the same during wrist rotations, moving pistons the same way no matter what the wrist is doing.
