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[monk12]

Dangerous? YES

Awesome? ALSO YES

I'm not in the possession of enough mechanical know-how to comment on this. I'm interested to see your boiler designs though, since powering the whole damn thing could be the trickiest part. Do you have enough gauges kicking around to measure pressure? If you can get it to work without leaks using an air compressor to test I'd imagine it should be good to go with steam, but again, not a mechanic here.

Posting to follow.

[Eagleon]

A central regulator in a columnar system should do it, with valves for subsystems depending on their tolerances. That'd be the simplest to design, too.

Man, as soon as I saw this project it made me want to make an autobalancing steam segway. I thought of a way to do it, with a counterweight system and a basin of water at the bottom feeding pipes that are heated at the very base which push the weight to the opposite side that it's fallen on. I was born in the wrong era.

[Max White]

MUST BE DONE!!!
Post photos as you go... This is awesome! I don't really think it is feasible, but if it end up working then you sir are a legend.

[Virex]

Those joints look like they have a huge friction factor. You're going to lose a lot of pressure there, which may mean you can't get enough pressure further in the system.

[Araph]

Responding backwards through the posts...

@ Virex
The joints were a big problem, but yesterday I just realized a way that would work better. Unfortunately, I can't draw a picture now because I'm responding from my phone, but I'll draw one as soon as I'm back on my computer. The idea is that the limbs will be moved similar to how a trains wheels are turned; a jointed metal bar connected to a piston will be pushing them one way, but the piston is in the main body of the robot. That way there could be regular hinge joints for elbows without needing the pipes.

@ Max White
Thanks for the encouragement! I'll be putting up as many pictures as I can.

@ Eagleon
If I understand what you're saying correctly, then that's what I was planning on doing. The Segway idea reminds me of a machine some guy a couple hundred years ago made; it was a humanoid steam powered robot that would pull a little cart around behind it. Surprisingly, it actually worked. It could go 60 mph at it's top speed. That doesn't actually have that much to do with what you're thinking of, but I just thought it was cool.

@ Monk12
I'll hurry up and scan the drawing of the boiler design, I'll have that up later today. I'm pretty sure I would only need one pressure gauge, with little homemade pressure releasers around the pistons to boh keep the pressure at a safe amount and let you release all the steam from the pipes.

@ bowdown2q
The screw assembly is an interesting idea, but I don't know if it'd work with the joints. For a rotating part (like a shoulder), that would work great though! Shoulders were another big problem for me. Once again, I'll put up a picture of what I think it'd look when I'm using my computer again.

@ Nikov, Sensei, and Spreggo
Yes, I know all of the problems that go with steam engines. If I'm actually going to make this thing, I'm going to try to do it accurately. Besides, everybody here has played Dwarf Fortress! You should know how much Fun can be had with adding unnecessary complications!

The engine wouldn't be coal, actually. I'm thinking of having a alcohol burning engine. It would be easier than coal, at least.

@ bowdown2q again
I was planning on testing the limbs and everything with an air compressor, but it will end up being steam powered.

Thanks for the comments! In the time since I first posted this thread, two major problems have been solved thanks to you.

[Jopax]

Again, one thing you are forgetting is that FUN while always good in digital form where you can watch the hapless wretches suffer from a safe distance is not as good when you are the hapless wretch suffering burns all over your skin.So even if you do want to do it hardcore please first try it with something safe like pressurised air because you do not want to have severe skin burns.

[Araph]

I know, I was joking about the Fun part, and I'm going to be careful. Bear in mind that I'm going to be wielding a torch that spits metal melting fire, dealing with pipes that would be away flesh just by momentarily touching them, and having sparks of molten iron flying everywhere. I haven't been injured by welding yet, and I don't plan on it happening during this project. Believe me, I'm going to be taking precautions against things like steam.

[Stas]

You are my hero.

[Araph]

Sorry about the delayed response, I got sidetracked yesterday. Here are the pictures I said I was going to put up:


This is my idea for joints in limbs. The pistons are attached to thin metal bars, which in turn are connected to metal wheels. The wheels can rotate on the same joint as the limb segment in front of them. When the wheel turns, the part of the limb attached to it turns. The only problem with this is that there would need to be some way of compensating for the other parts of the arm moving. The good thing about this, though, is that it can be extended as far as is necessary by layering wheels over other wheels, if that makes sense.


This is a picture of how the shoulder would work. Most of it is explained in the picture's text, but there are a couple problems with it. The biggest one is how to keep the pistons and wheels from the previous pictures attached, but I think it would work by have a set of moving gears in between them. I'll have to figure that out.

EDIT: Hooray! I just got the pipe for this today, so I'll be ready to start welding on Monday!

[Antsan]

This is awesome and I am posting to follow.

I've got no idea how this stuff works, so the constructive part of my post is going to be not there at all.

[Vector]

Posting to follow :3

[Virex]

For the shoulder joint, you could greatly simplify that design by making it a two-stage system. You can use a simple, unidirectional joint for the movement in the plane of the body, and then attach a joint for movement perpendicular to the body to that assembly. I think that'd be much more robust then the gear assembly you drew up.


Also on the joints, I see you're using pistons, but you didn't detail how they'd work. I think it's best to use springs, so that the piston extends when you put pressure on it and it retracts automatically if you let the pressure go. That way you don't need a complex charge-discharge cycle for the pistons. Just opening or closing a valve would change the pressure in the piston, meaning the balance point between steam pressure and the springs force is going to shift, resulting in motion.


For conveying steam across joints, you could make a kind of Z-turn across the joint. You'd have one L-shaped pipe coming into the joint and inside the joint, in the short end of the L-shape, another L-shaped pipe would start. With proper greasing and sealing, that should be able to transport steam across a joint without creating a high pressure drop (especially if you make the turns gradual instead of straight angles), but how well this would work of course depends on how well you can seal the pipes without causing too much friction.


On another note, how much pressure do you think you can get out of the boiler you're going to use?

[Soadreqm]

Posting to watch. Just try not to kill yourself in a steam explosion or anything, okay? I'd like to see this finished.

[Virex]

I just realized that controlling power through valves only works if you have flow, because in a flowless system the system will just tend to equilibrium no matter how far the valve is open (unless it's fully closed of course). But to get a flow, you either need an exhaust or a condenser. I think using exhausts would be simpler because then you don't need return pipes to the condenser (nor do you need to lug a load of ice around ), but then you'll need a sufficiently large tank of water to go with the boiler.

[alfie275]

Have the condensor heat coffee?