Ferret is GO for Design!

Well I've begun a project to give me a final target design. I blame the 1/6 scale RC paintball tanks for making me think about this. I started wondering "what if I make a Gear?"

For those who don't know me, Gears are humanoid one man IFV's from the game world of Heavy Gear from Dream Pod 9.

I did some scale calculations, and I'd be seeing 3 foot tall models if I went with 1/6 scale. So, I decided to target 1/12 scale (although this will be changed as I look at the realities of frame scaling) and pick one of the oddest designs available: the Ferret.

Ferrets are a cross between a walking robot and a motorcycle. Short and stubby, it has a large powered rear wheel that provides secondary locomotion when the front legs are locked together and the heel wheels are rotated down to provide a semi-tricycle arrangement.

So, what components do I see as part of this project?

-DSPServo design and standardization (Hitec 645MG and 805BB shall be my targets due to their high torque and good speeds)
-DC motor control (powered rear wheel)
-High amp switching power supply (based on a dsPIC design)
-Imaging
-Sonar
-Structural design
-IMU

I do plan to "arm" this thing too. I might make a four-part weapons layout. One scale-simulation armament plan based on IR LED (laser tag) hardware. Another may be based on low cost airsoft conversions. To play with the tanks, I might build a paintball bazooka. Last would be rockets based off my look-see into homebuilt Nerf weaponry. I can see a mix being good (rockets done in Nerf, cannons and lasers built around Lasertag and/or airsoft). Time will tell.

Given the specialized nature of this, I think I might have to break this off into another Blog once I have enough background down. Not everyone knows of Gears, of course.

Back to the drawing board...