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How My Track Technology Uses 3D Printing for Their Remote All-Terrain Vehicle

My Track Technology (MTT) is an eco-friendly, electric remote-controlled track vehicle built to operate in extreme terrains. Its low center of gravity, resistance to the elements and autonomy make it a crucial new tool for a wide range of civilian and military applications including emergency and disaster rescues and agricultural functions.

Partnered with Shapeways, the makers of MTT were able to use 3D printing to cut substantial time and costs in their production process by rapidly prototyping designs and printing strong, end-use ready parts that can resist the elements.

We interviewed Michael Martel from MTT to find out how MTT has utilized Shapeways’ 3D printing technology to ramp up production with speed and efficiency.

What is your name and your role at My Track Technology?

My name is Michael
Martel and I’m in charge of the MTT product development.

How did My Track Technology start?

10 years ago my
father and I were discussing a product that can enhance human power but as
small as possible to be able to go where a person can walk. The main goal was
to be able to get someone that is injured out of deep forest and at the same
time bring reduced mobility
persons to extreme places.

From a sketch in 2010 (left) to a fully functional machine in 2020 (right).

What kinds of customers can MTT benefit?

Our customers are very broad. First, there is the military for rescue and material carrying. Mining for carrying material underground without any fumes and CO2 that has to be ventilated out of the mine. Wildfire suppression help, carrying water pumps and equipment. Also fat bike trails grooming, for agriculture use on wet fields or carrying a freezer in the field for fruits and vegetable harvesting. Replacing a generator on construction sites with MTT-154 onboard 2000W inverter, and much much more. 

My Track Technology rescue and rapid intervention
My Track Technology’s machine used in rescue and rapid intervention.
Photo source: My Track Technology

How did you find Shapeways?

Four years
ago one of my electronic employees bought a cheap FDM printer that he assembled himself. At that time I was very skeptical of 3D printing,
I was thinking it was only for toys and figurines. Nevertheless I let him try
some joystick parts. I was at the time building it with a laser cut aluminum
sheet, bent and welded to make an enclosed case. His part with FDM (PLA) was so successful that we
used it for our vehicle for about a year, very amazing. The problem with this
part was the surface finish, time to print and resistance to wet environments.
I was so impressed by this test that I decided
to learn more on 3D printing methods, suppliers and more. This is when I came
to Shapeways’ website and was very impressed
by the technical information and production
capabilities.

I then decided to
manufacture a couple of parts at Shapeways and I have
never been disappointed since. Shapeways is not the
least expensive but I tested many suppliers over the years and I did a lot of
cold temperature testing. Shapeways always has the strongest and nicer finished parts. 

Unless you have $100,000 or more to invest in an SLS or HP printer you will never have the quality, robustness, precision and surface finish of a Shapeways part.

What are the benefits of using Shapeways over an in-office printer?

When buying a printer you have an amazing amount of choice offered to you. The problem is to have a printer for all of the applications. The size of the parts, the surface finish, the resistance and the productivity of this printer are all to be considered. Unless you have $100,000 or more to invest in an SLS or HP printer you will never have the quality, robustness, precision and surface finish of a Shapeways part. Shapeways is a one-stop shop for 3D printing projects. They have multiple machines to accommodate all the requirements of all special projects. So for us Shapeways has been a great partner to reach all of our goals, present and future.

What are the benefits of 3D printing with Shapeways over other manufacturing methods?

Speed, cost and simplicity. When our 3D drawing is finished we don’t have to produce fabrication drawings. We just upload the 3D file on Shapeways’ website. Very simple. We also do not have to build a mold for 1 up to 50 parts. It’s very great cost saving. Later when the design is perfect we can build a mold and be confident that the mold will meet our requirements. We are also not limited to a particular shape with 3D printing, practically every shape is possible. Finally, the precision, repeatability and tolerances are better than most of the others manufacturing methods.

“The precision, repeatability and tolerances [of 3D printing technology] are better than most of the others manufacturing methods

What aspect of My Track Technology production do you use 3D printing and Shapeways for?

We are right now
moving to production and most of the parts that had previously been tested with
3D printing are now thermo or injection molded. 3D printing saves us an amazing amount of money by testing
different designs quickly. When the design is
confirmed the mold can be built with the peace of mind that this part works perfectly well.

The other 10 parts
that are needed for an
MTT-154 2020 will continue to be built with 3D
printing technologies. Up to about 100 MTT-154 units per year it totally makes
sense to print parts in Nylon. We save the initial cost of the mold and we can design parts
that are impossible to manufacture with a traditional mold.

What materials do you use?

Right now we mostly use SLS, with Nylon PA12 (Versatile Plastic), dyed black. We also use rubber like TPU to create custom grommets.

How does working with Shapeways affect the speed of your manufacturing?

In our MTT machine there are about 20 plastic parts. Last year we were in a very big rush to do a test with the US military and we had no time to build 20 molds for every single part. We saved at least 6 months (concept, drawing for molding, mold building and parts production) by 3D printing with Shapeways.

How about any cost savings?

For 20 plastic parts the average cost of a mold is $3500 * 20 = 70,000 USD. This money would have been a very big gamble knowing that we were unsure if these parts would meet the functionality, design and resistance we needed. $70K is a lot of money for a startup. It’s manageable, but $70K without any guarantee that this mold will be useful in the future is unacceptable.

Video source: My Track Technology

What is the most important aspect of working with Shapeways for you?

First, when we want
a strong part I know that Shapeways will not disappoint us. Also the website is
very easy to use, and I like the freedom to choose the shipping you want
depending on the requirement of a particular project. The quality control is
also excellent because I never return a part. Finally, the service when I need
information is excellent.

Can you share any current or future goals for My Track Technology?

The goal right now
is really to move to production and send machines to the customers that have
reserved these vehicles in the past. The product we sell right now is our
MTT-154 2020, with the possibilities to have only one unit with a trailer/sled
or with the flip of a switch multiple units coupled together for special military and industrial
applications.

Finally, we have orders for some small MTT-like robots. The frame will be built entirely in SLS printing at Shapeways very soon.

The next stage in 2021-2022 will be remote control with satellite or 4G and autonomous capabilities.

Efficient Manufacturing with 3D Printing

My Track Technology’s vast range of potential applications will see it become an essential tool for assisting humans in navigating challenging terrains and environments. Using 3D printing has made MTT’s production process much more efficient and affordable and shows how 3D printing can contribute to smarter manufacturing.

Find out how Shapeways can help with your rapid prototyping and robotics manufacturing needs.

The post How My Track Technology Uses 3D Printing for Their Remote All-Terrain Vehicle appeared first on Shapeways Blog.

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A tiny purple dragon companion robot with Adafruit Feather #Feather #NeoPixels #Robots @the_gella

Angela Sheehan posts on Twitter her new automated companion. Her purple robot is incredible. The electronics are based on the Adafruit Feather M0 with radio microcontroller board with NeoPixel lights and a capacitive touch sensor on the forehead. Servo motors flaps the wings and tilt the head.

Angela has programmed her companion to work with her color stealing fairy wand, developed previously with an Adafruit Flora color sensor. The detected color is sent over to the companion via radio.

See Angela’s Twitter Feed for the steps she has documented. Wonderful work!

 

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How Building Robots Lets Students’ Imaginations Run Wild

Since we first launched, Shapeways has been passionate about supporting innovation in the robotics industry, developing accessible tools and high-quality, flexible materials that expand what’s possible. With Shapeways, building robots is easy – even non-experts can design and create their own parts and systems, turning their ideas into reality. To help showcase how 3D printing is transforming the robotics industry, we spoke with Shape Robotics about the ways they are using Shapeways to expand their business.

The Story Behind Shape Robotics

It all began in 2011, at the Technical University of Denmark – just outside of Copenhagen. Moises Pacheco partnered with and began collaboration with David Johan Christensen, an Associate Professor and Robot Researcher. It became clear that Moises and David shared the same vision: to develop a robot system that was extremely easy-to-use – even for younger school pupils.

The two developers were inspired by previous projects with modular robots that could repair themselves, as well as a project they had in progress with LEGO®, which was to develop new, digital products. This became Moises’ Ph.D. project, and as the years passed, interest in using the robot system Fable grew ever greater. At the end of 2015, David, Moises and Helene Christensen, a project manager, set up the spin-out company Shape Robotics and Fable was ready for the market. Their mission remains today: to make Fable as widely available as possible to students globally. This has been made possible with funding from the Technical University of Denmark and the Danish Ministry of Education – and they are well on their way. The Fable robotics system has since appeared on the top Microsoft Education Apps list and has also launched successfully with partners in the United Kingdom, USA, Italy, France and Mexico with more being added to the global list at a rapid pace.

Students learning how to build robots. Image by Shape Robotics

How 3D Printing Evolved Our Business

Using 3D printing parts has significantly expanded the usability of our product. Among other things, it gives the students a greater opportunity to use their own imagination to build robots by using the 3D printed parts in their design. Shapeways was the first 3D printing supplier that we discovered. We use the platform for all stages of production, from early stage prototyping to end use products. Now we can easily test different designs, modifying each based on our customers’ feedback and then quickly releasing the update. With Shapeways, we see greater accuracy in the parts we order and we’re able to easily scale up production, ordering any amount we need, no matter how large. For our company, dimensional accuracy is very important; so are aesthetics. Strength is also important, as our products are often being handled by students as early as third grade, which means falling on the floor often.

We’ve tried a number of Shapeways materials, including steel, versatile plastic, and fine detail plastic. The versatile plastic is the best for us, as it is more suitable for the way our products are being used, due to its mechanical properties. The value of versatile plastic and its high quality mechanical properties make this material ideal for our robots. Fable has already come so far but this is only the beginning. We are looking forward to what the future holds for Fable and Education on an even larger, global scale.

Interested in 3D Printing Robots for Your Business?

Find out how Shapeways can help make that happen.

 

 

The post How Building Robots Lets Students’ Imaginations Run Wild appeared first on Shapeways Magazine.

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Chinese researchers use 3D printing to reinvent the wheel for SAR robotics

Researchers from China’s National University of Defense Technology (NUDT) are using 3D printing to improve the design of Search and Rescue (SAR) and Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) robots. In an effort to make such robots more adaptable to terrain, the NUDT team developed a compact wheel-track-leg hybrid system based on a novel transformable mechanism. This […]
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The NASA FRILLER robot uses a Raspberry Pi and the Adafruit Motor HAT @raspberry_pi @nasa @adafruit @themagpi

NASA FRILLER Robot Raspberry Pi, Adafruit Motor HAT

Via the MagPi and NASA’s Al Bencomo – this amazing robot, named FRILLER, changes the shape of its wheels to overcome obstacles.

The idea was inspired by the STAR robot from UC Berkeley and some of the research done at NASA/JPL, which includes prototypes of collapsible robots and robots with tails.

The first proof-of-concept trial had a tendon-like connector in order to tension the wedges in one state or the other. However, the latest version relies on interlocking sections, which can be 3D-printed without having to print support structures.

Some of the parts used:

All the 3D print STL files and code are open-source if you want to build your own: magpi.cc/pYSbeV.

See the MagPi magazine for more details!

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‘Teach Kids Coding’ with a #3DPrinted ‘Code Kitty’ & @OSHPark PCB | #opensource #robot #robots @MNcode_kitty

Jason from CodeKitty wrote in to tell us what the organization is up to:

Hello! We are a Twin Cities, Minnesota (USA) based technology
education 501(c)(3) tax-exempt non-profit. Our mission is to make coding
and engineering skills accessible to everyone (especially targeting girls
and underrepresented groups) by providing donation-funded (or free) coding
workshops using our extremely low cost 3D printed robot. Our workshop is a
$50 suggested donation per attendee and includes the robot, so that Every
Kid Gets a Robot. So far we have given away around 100 robots in this
fashion, and provided our workshop for both students as young as second
grade, and for teachers as Professional Development (in a meta-workshop
train-the-trainer model).

We are constantly working to simplify our robot, and the currently released
model is based around your excellent Trinket m0 board, a custom designed
(oshpark fabricated) breakout board, and 360 degree microservos). The
challenge we have as a very small non-profit is that I design and
manufacture all of the robot kits by hand myself, including reflow and hand
soldering all of the breakout boards. Although the Trinket m0 is very low
cost, the time and materials cost of self-manufacturing our trinket breakout
board raises our costs substantially, and our total cost of this model of
our robot is $27.54, not factoring in any cost or value at all for the
considerable amount of time i spend making them.

There’s a v1.0 of their ‘bot and a recently updated v2 with OSH Park purple PCBs provided here and instructions online:

The Code Kitty robot is a 3D printed robot designed to help teach kids coding. It was developed by the Code Kitty non-profit because we wanted there to be a robot cheap enough for every kid to have one and learn the joy of engineering, coding, and robotics! We offer the robot to participants of our workshop, or sell complete robot kits under a “buy one/give one” program for $50.

Although the 3D printed parts of the robot are the same, there are two “builds” of the electronics of the robot: The “Workshop Build” and the “DIY Build”. In either case you will need to print one base, one face, one tail, two wheels and two hubcaps. We recommend combining all of the parts you want to be the same color into one print job, and the parts are small enough that the entire robot can be printed in two print jobs on most 3D printers.

They’re doing great things and you can always check out what they’re up to here.