🚀 go-pugleaf

yee@edison.seas.ucla.edu (John Yee) writes:

>Hello robot builders, have you any experience making small, say 6" diameter
>maximum, hovercraft?  If so, please post/email your experiences.

I built a 12" hovercraft for operation on extremely smooth surfaces.

Rather than a fan, I used compressed CO^2.  I used the oxidant
regulars from two mini tourches (the butane/nitrous oxide tourches
that Radio Shack used to sell).  The CO^2 cartriges were of the type
used in selzer bottles.

The base of the hovercraft was a piece of plexiglas, about 1/8" thick,
cut into a circle and carefully polished.

I drilled a small hole in the center, just large enough to fit the
fine tip of the tourch.  I made a shallow indentation on the bottom of
the base about 1" diameter around the hole in the center.

Setting the regulators at a very low setting, the device would move
freely accross a level lab table for several minutes.  Setting higher
pressures would allow movement accross slightly rougher surfaces (like
a clean floor), though the CO^2 tends to turn into dry ice at higher
pressures.

This device was bulit as an entry in a mousetrap-propelled vehicle
race.  The mousetrap pushed a rod backwards against a wall for the
initial thrust.  The device worked well in tests on a large sheet of
linoleum, but irregularities in the floor of the contest arena caused
the device to spin in a circle.
--
La Monte H. Yarroll	Home:		piggy@baqaqi.chi.il.us
   Work:		piggy@hilbert.maths.utas.edu.au
   AKA:			piggy@gargoyle.uchicago.edu
   Once upon a time:	postmaster@clout.chi.il.us