##Megapede## Our dream is to make and share a 3D printable creature which can move like a Centipede and Millipede.
##Story##
###Mechamo and me
At first, there was a production Gakken's Mechamo Centipede
It's the most popular mechanical toys for education which released in 1972. The Mechamo concept is came from Mechanimal which started by
Tomiya Ryuichi (富谷龍一) and [Mori Masahiro]
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masahiro_Mori) (森政弘) in 1968.
When I(Sho Yoshida) was a child, my father bought to me a recreation version of the Mechamo(I memory it as Mechamo "Crub" not Centipede that time) to me.
I was interested in living things not only robots, so it's very naturally for me to have interested in Mechamo's unique mechanism which like living things.
And I suceeded to assemble the Mechamo kit finally. After assembled Mechamo, I tryed to show it to my father.
I expected that he will praise me, but I memory he said like this,
"You think you made Mechamo, but it's just succeeded to assemble it. Really amazing is, the person who created it and shared their creations to world. Important point is what will you learn and make from the Mechamo. "
###Making Micropede
I started to make the centipede mechanics by 3Dprinter in December 2012.
My 1st motive to make Micropede is, to know the possibility of 3Dprinter as a making tool of robots.
I didn't have 3Dprinter that time, so I have to use a 3D printing service Shapeways at first.
After many try and error, I suceeded to make a printable Centipede "Micropede" finally in April 2013.
Shellmo and its Micropede
Fortunally, I could release Micropede with a robot platform project "Shellmo" that's released in December 2013.
But I understood that it was not "true" printable. 3D printing Micropede by our low price 3Dprinter was really difficult than I was thought.
I mean "true" printable is, the objects which can be printed by our "FDM" type lowprice 3Dprinter without using difficult technics. Ofcourse, it should be easy to assemble and make for almost 3Dprinter users.
In the case of Micropede, all parts were designed for "SLS(Selective Laser Sintering))" type high performance 3D printer. The SLS printer is very difference from our FDM 3Dprinter.There are many difference(resolution, support material, strength etc) between those printers and it became a problem.
If the case making simple objects, the difference is no problem, but Micropede's structures were too complex...
But we want to share this unique mechanism to more people.
We started to make true printable Micropede from the reason.
###Making "True" printable Micropede
I released Shellmo and Micropede as an opensource project.
Opensource is not just openning its source to web. In opensource projects, the most important is the existance of each members. I learned it by members after started Shellmo as an opensource project.
We can't write about all of the contributions of our members, but if we select only about Micropede, these 3 challenger's contributions were really meanfull.
We think it was impossible to complete Megapede without their challenges.
Rainer Radow (Germany)
A great maker.
We learned a lot from his creations and ideas.
He joined us with his idea of Micropede to use spur gears not using one large shaft gear.
His idea became a key technology of the Megapede too.
He suceeded to make the 1st true printable Micropede as "Macropede".
Macropede Video 1
Macropede Video 2
He also made a lot of creations related with Shellmo not only about Micropede.
We succeeded to participate the MakefFaire Hannover 2014 as our 1st debut to world by his efforts.
James McCartney (America)
A great supporter of us.
He covered our(almost my) mistakes really many times.
At the early stage of the Micropede challenge, he checked a very basic but important idea of the modular chassis.
We installed the idea to our new "Micropedes" and printing Micropede became easier.
In addition we learned a lot from him is about the circuits and PCBs.
We think it was impossible to make the controller board "Core" if without his support.
We're using the core board to many robots includes Megapede.
Xoan Sampaiño (Spain)
A top skill 3D printer user.
He made Rappipede and showed people the desktop 3Dprinter's possibility.
It's the 1st printed Micropede without changing the body size from original Micropede.
We all surprised when we saw his Rappipede's smoothly moving.
Rappipede Video 1
Rappipede Video 2
Rappipede Github
###Making Megapede
We just gathered each member's creation's good points and our challenge's experiments as one.
##Our printing environment##
Printer: RepRap mendel MAX1.5
Layer height: 0.2mm or 0.3mm
Print speed: 40mm/s
Printing temperature: 210 C
Shell thickness: 0.4mm
Fill density: 50%
Total printing time: About 20 hours
##Other parts##
Motor:
Yellow gear motor x 2
Shops Sparkfun,Aliexpress
Screws:
M3_10mm x 28 pcs *
M3_25mm x 4 pcs Pololu
M3 nut x 32 pcs Pololu
*You can use M3_15mm if you don't have 10mm screws
##Video & Pictures##
Video 1
Pictures
##Tutorial## We're preparing. We will write it before September.
##License## Creative commons CC BY 4.0 by ShellmoProject members
##Special thanks##
Printable Micropede challenger:
Rainer Radow, James McCartney, Xoan Sampaiño, Sho Yoshida
Original design:
Mechamo centipede by Gakken company