Perpetual Motion Seesaw Robot

[kawregis]

Misleading!

Please give up science. You would have a better chance in the "how to get unwanted attention" business! Perhaps you could video you farting and call it earthquake in Japan. This surely would annoy a lot of people. That is what you want isn't it?

I agree, zebenwan is not smart at all. Not even funny. Just a spoiled child with a bad attitude.

In other words... an idiot!

[rkjpsn]

whatever, this is cool. everyone should just chill and stop pointing out that this isnt a true PM machine

[timjamesmackenzie]

@zebenwan so rename the video. call it shit vid with crap ending

[vo7tage]

Maybe you shouldn't call it "perpetual motion", as this can be misleading. How about

"harnessed physics".

[FarceTheory]

Look ma no hands!

[Jaronschoor]

Wow zebenwan is not very smart. A perpetual motion machine is something that work's without energy from an outside force.

-First he claims that it doesn't require energy to run

-Then when someone points out his stupidity, because it requires batteries, he insults him!

[maximusben1]

DPM LAB FTW ahahaha

[Nomasain]

It's useless, I like it.

[netstorm2k7]

The Permanent Juggler. That is so cool. I'm building a giant one and putting it in my front yard.

[netstorm2k7]

Oh, and jackasses, the ball is in "perpetual motion," as long as power is applied to the controller. Get over yourselves. Nothing mentioned said overunity.

[thumper88888]

@netstorm2k7 its perpetual motion until the batteries die hahaha . Ive never heard that one before

[Prayerefire]

Nice job!

[chrisofnottingham]

You should have put "Perpetual Motion" in the title of this vid :-)

[B44rules]

@chrisofnottingham they did?

[chrisofnottingham]

whoops! *shouldn't*

[bobobano]

ahh, so thats the kind of bs they teach at McGill. That a robot keeping a ball on a track can run forever. interesting.

[maximusben1]

@bobobano nah...this is a robot class...but student do dumb stuff out of the class with the nxt kit such as this....nothing to do with the course

[SpeedyGonZohan]

What energy is it producing?

The basic principle of perpetual motion is that the machine produces more energy than it consumes. All I see is consuption.

[oldsamhaine]

more energy than it consumes would be overunity. perpetual motion is a closed system that does not loose energy. That said, this system seems to use.

[cas111498]

somebody needs beat.

[joebeebe1988]

now if you could figure out a way to put an energy-creating magnet under the ball so that when it rolled past it it created the power to run the laser, then you would have perpetual motion.

[roderik1990]

still not quite as energy would be lost no matter what happens.

[knineu02]

So tell me how the sensor and the gear are powered. Unless the ball rolling back and forth produce enough energy to keep going, it's not perpetual motion.

[therealcedz]

this isnt perpetual motion.

[411HowTo]

but the NXT needs energy to run

[zebenwan]

No it doesn't.

[SolomonJonesIsBack]

@zebenwan bullshit.

[FFXPWNS]

yes the nxt needs energy to run

[flemish4]

6 AA bateries!! ya thats energy

[tractorboy8420]

@zebenwan batteries..........

[nrdesign1991]

@zebenwan how about batteries placed inside it

[kingofthebacon]

@zebenwan yeah totally and birds fly out of my butt and i throw them at old people wearing cardigans yep exactly!

[reverbflange]

@zebenwan What then powers the servo and NXT?

[rlolli]

Consuption > Generation?

[henchzk]

ok but the energy used tu balance the ball ?=?.

[Keano70]

You guys seriously need to google the meaning of perpetual motion!! Otherwise it's a nice device

[Dirtboy101]

I think it would work best if there was an ultrasonic sensor on one side so that when the ball gets too close to either side, the robot will sense it and tilt it the other way.

[Efi4ltis]

The ultrasonic sensor doesn't work well with curved surfaces:P

[Dirtboy101]

Good Point!

[nullproperty]

maybe if the ball was a big magnet. alternating poles as it acends and decends beside a large coil armiture that runs back to the actual circuitry which i dont think this at all would even generate enough power to turn on the microcontroler but asfar as robotics and just cool stuff goes. good job! =]

[ElGatoLoco698]

get rid of the power supply

[Dirtboy101]

That would suck to have to program.

[dahuz795]

Looks not too hard to me:

Detect appearence of the ball in the view of the light sensor. Start a timer that measures the time until the ball disappears. Ball gone? Stop timer. Now that we have the speed of the ball, look into a predefined table (based on test results) which tells us how high and how quick the "rail" has to be lifted (= how far and quick the servo attached to it has to rotate) and do that. Calculate how long it'll take until the ball stops. Lower rail a little then. Repeat.

[Dirtboy101]

But wouldn't it have to be a bit slower every time because the speed naturally progresses as the ball rolls.

[dahuz795]

Good point, but I think the aforementioned "Lower rail a little then"-action, which could also be seen in the video when the ball had reached the peak and was on its way back, equalizes the natrual progression of the ball's speed. In order to achieve a correct equalization everytime, another table might be needed that holds values for that second motion, and those could be difficult to obtain I guess, but it should be possible.

[Dirtboy101]

So it's not quite perpetual because at one point the movement would be so great that the fulcrum would need to be raised to accommodate to the length of the rail. By the way, very impressive build.

[riley8839]

ha perpetual until the battery dies betcha didnt think bout that did ya

[treppenspringer]

this is cool.

[grandexandi]

yeah, right... i'm beholding...

[nemo14blau]

this is great! how did you program the calculation of the balls velocity with the light sensor?

[experiment52]

actually we don't calculate the velocity, we just react whenever we see the ball. this essentially drives the oscillation at a frequency close to its resonant frequency, and there is enough friction in the system to keep the amplitude steady.

[UTOTSAHANGIN]

no it aint!