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9-24-99
In the absence of my instructor, I have had plenty of time during school to work on my lego pieces in autocad. Now I have nearly all the pieces necessary to build our 5-leg robot in 3D. If you click here you will download a zip file of all the pieces I have made so far in AutoCAD Release 14 format. Each piece is a block you can insert into your main drawing. Below is a picture of all the pieces included in the zip file. Its a little incomplete but hey, I have only been working on it for a couple school days.

And here is a picture of our 5-leg robot in mid-construction with AutoCAD

One warning: Some assemblies will not line up correctly. I measured the pieces with an accurate caliper but I could not yet predict what exact tolerances lego may have used on their pieces. Also, in real life, plastic is flexible unlike its autocad representation. I know we bend a piece or two just to get things lined up once in a while.
To contact me directly about the zip file or pictures email to mikem@gscyclone.com

8-20-99
I (Mike) just got back from a trip to Seneca Rocks in West Virginia. It was a blast! I think the pictures speak for themselves (or at least they better because I am too tired to type). Here is a link to all 23 pictures I took while we were there.

1-30-99
For those who had any questions on mounting motors to our tandem Differtrans, here is one idea. The motors are mounted above the differentials with one idler gear between the motor and the small-geared end of the differential.

1-27-99
Here are some pictures of variations on the popular "Adder-Subtractor" transmission system (First shown to us by Alex Wetmore). Both of these variations had the desired goal of eliminating the use of offset inter-connecting gears between the differentials. In-line gears concentrate the stress where the supporting components are strongest. Click on thumbnails to view the larger image.

This is the side-by-side or "adjacent" design which achieved our goal while minimizing the distance between the defferential shafts. This design does not require any special lego pieces (i.e. offset hole brick):

This is the tandem design which achieved the desired goal while minimizing the overall width of the completed transmission:

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