Watch this cool demonstration of a Lego truck being modified to go up increasingly steeper inclines

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Originally published at: Watch this cool demonstration of a Lego truck being modified to go up increasingly steeper inclines | Boing Boing

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Here’s a link to the actual source of the video, from the excellent Brick Experiment Channel:

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I once had to figure out how to make a robot that could drive around on a parabolic dish antenna of a 12 meter radiotelescope, to move a laser tracker corner cube around for surface measurements. So I handed the problem to the kids on the robotics team that I was mentoring. They made a similar machine to the one shown here, using Vex parts.

We found that the most difficult part was dealing with the dust on the aluminum surface. The ‘cheat’ involved 3M rubber insulating tape, but it would get covered in dust and lose its grip. We ended up having the mechanical engineer mop the surface before the robot got to it.

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This one was my fave. I think this is what Nasa Rover designers do all day: https://youtu.be/MwHHErfX9hI

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Pretty cool. Possibly useful for trolling Jeep™ enthusiasts.

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So do hill climbing dune buggies actually have their engines lowered to provide a lower center of gravity?

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Their engines are already pretty darn low. The VW Bug engine is a flat four with the block centered a few inches above the axles.

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It’s a compromise between keeping the mass as low as possible, while still providing enough ground clearance for the suspension to work:
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As a follow up to the climbing video, Brick Experiments chanal has tested all the different Lego tyres and tracks to chart which are the most grippy (on a plank of wood). I’d recommend every video they put out, at least in part for the straightforward, no talking, non-click-baity format.

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