Acquisition

Keeping an eye on craigslist for industrial robots I eventually found a local robot at a price point that was hard to ignore: $1,800

Loading the controller was straightforward since it started on an elevated deck, we tipped it up onto a stack of pallets and over into the bed of the truck, then uprighted it.

2024-07 - Trip to vashon

This was one of the first cases of using a second strap to locate a primary strap. Note that the black strap is keeping the yellow strap from sliding down, and that the free body diagram results in no strap sliding

Rigging

Robot: ~80KG Control ~250KG

Unloading was more difficult. I had recently added a winch to my overlander (1986 bronco ii), so I rigged a quick hoist. Since nothing was lift rated we moved very slowly and made sure never to stand under the load.

I was confident the rafter could support the vertical load, but the horizontal component had to be mitigated. By extending a strap opposite the direction of the winch I was able to distribute the load across the entire structure instead of a single beam

the robot slowly moving around

Using a leftover VFD and a quick trip to the hardware store for plugs I was able to get power to the robot and perform the first movements. Very slowly. It’s just sitting balanced on the ground, spooky!