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LEVi Open Rover Raspberry Pi Robotic Platform

Explorer, Security, STEM and Lawn Mower Robot
Raspberry Pi 3 / 4 and Win 10 x 86 with Synthiam software builder.

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Hello everyone, let me introduce myself. I am Josh Starnes, an Application Development student at Western Governors University. I have taken some time to develop this first edition of the LEVi Rover Robot platform. The original purpose was to have a multi use platform that can perform many tasks by adding on accessories to expand capability. The first accessory that I started testing was for mowing the lawn. It is an extremely satisfying experience when you see the fruits of hard word, doing your hard work maintaining your beautiful turf. :)The purpose of this project is to put a vanilla unmodified platform out in the wild so that accessories can be cultivated for that intended task. It could be a floor scrubber, a pressure washer, or even a leaf vacuum. Levi could play giant sized robot soccer. The options are endless and I would love to see this platform make a way into the educational classroom. Facebook Group

i. Concept- Is the project creative, original, functional, and pushing boundaries? Does the project effectively address the selected challenge?


ii. Design- Is there a depth of design detail available (like a system design, CAD models, project test methods, etc.)? Is there base-level planning for the functionality (e.g., functional block diagram, list of specifications and descriptions of how they will be met, etc.)? How user-friendly is the design?


iii. Production- Is the project realistically reproducible (taking into consideration necessary materials, skills, and production processes)? Are the manufacturing processes detailed? Are those processes realistic for scalability?


iv. Benchmark- How well is the project impact and viability demonstrated? Are estimated costs realistic? How well does the project improve upon other currently available solutions?


v. Communication- How thoroughly have the Final Round requirements been completed? How well documented is the project? How “open” is the design? 

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4031686 backup repository

UPDATE: Files have been broken into smaller pieces that can be printed on a 6.5 x 6.5" 3D printer bed. All these pieces are number like 1 of 20, 2 of 20 ect. I also have the whole uncut files posted as well.

The first prototype I put together was a mashup of a electric wheelchair base and a electric lawn mower. https://hackaday.io/project/101386-lawn-dog-robotic-lawn-mower

I did share this project. I really wanted to make it my own and also be able to customize the robot with other kinds of accessories.

I will continue to update this project. Eventually I would like to make molds that I can use to pop out copies of the robot in resin, until then if you need one printed then this is possible. It is not cheap because it requires a lot of filament, but it could save thousands over buying even the most basic educational platforms of this size.

I do ask that everyone who downloads and prints this project keep the name LEVi Rover and also provides credit to me the creator. This helps me keep track as google indexes photos and project posts on the internet. This is ultimately a project for school.

ABOUT THE MODEL

The model at this time in 1:1 scale is about 26 inches long. The wheels are 6 inches tall standing up. It takes around 8-10 rolls of PLA to print.

Tires- The tires are meant to me printed in plastic and then a mold made with silicon. Liquid rubber can be mixed with pigment or powdered carbon to give it a tough but flexible texture. You can however combine and print the tire and wheel together as one piece if you wanted a simpler approach.

Tracks- The tracks CANNOT be printed and used in plastic, they are too rigid. You could print them in ninja flex, but I prefer to make a cast from a mold just like discussed with the Tires. I have a file loaded with the track stretched out into a big round circle. Unless your printer is very large you will want to slice this up into 4 pieces and reorient on your printers bed. When it is printed, you will need to glue together all the pieces and fill the cracks if there are any. Then cast the large track ring in rubber. I would make a mold box that gets within a inch of the track model so that you are not wasting a gallon of expensive rubber filling the large void in the center of the mold. You may need to underside the scaled maybe 1-5 percent in order to get some tension on the wheels. Try printing in the normal shape first to check sizing.

Headlights and Tail Lights- These are basically a place holder. You can print them and put some LEDs in them for good lighting, you could leave the covers off and fill the area with epoxy to encapsulate any LEDs you put in there too.

Head/ face- The face is colored black , but the long run purpose is to print the face and then use vacuum molding to make a copy in acrylic or Plexiglas. Then you can tint that plastic with grey or black clothing dye and warm...

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Standard Tesselated Geometry - 3.31 MB - 01/26/2020 at 20:40

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  • Downloads Thus far, Thingiverse

    Josh Starnes07/16/2020 at 03:21 0 comments

    As promised I made version 1 of Levi Rover available on thingiverse.com as well as on the hackaday site. I do not have numbers for downloads from hackaday, but I do from thingiverse. 2696 downloads of the main file, then around 600 downloads of separate files for those who didn't want to go through the trouble of breaking up the main file into smaller pieces.

  • Cutting down large STLs to printable size

    Josh Starnes01/26/2020 at 20:54 0 comments

    As of 1.25 2020 I broke the larger pieces of the model into smaller pieces that could be printed on an Ender 3 Pro platform. The main body is broken into 4-6 inch sections to print and glue together later.

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