Spideruino Revision – The Derpbot Body

By Agustin • September 27, 2011

Hello! Today I have some pictures to show you the latest version of my little robot. As fun as the funky face was, it was pretty hideous, and actually just for fun.

Over the past few days I came up with a plan to create a body using the amazing polypropalactone stuff I got (InstaMorph). Commonly referred to as ShapeLock(another brand), the stuff is amazing. It’s a plastic that gets maleable at 150 degrees Fahrenheit – meaning that you can make actual plastic parts with nothing more than a heat gun, or hot water.

Rather than try to make smooth parts, I thought that he might benefit from a sort of funkier texture, so I made some sheets of it by heating the little pellets and mushing them together. I then cut them and fused them back together in the shapes I needed to make the housing.

As you can see, this allowed me to make all sorts of pieces I needed without losing the vaguely organic texture of the pellets. I ended up making three pieces – the battery housing/mount, a midsection, and a cover. This lets me have access to all the parts I need to work on him, but still leave him looking nicely covered up. And no robot of mine would be complete without some sweet eyeballs and a derpy mouth!

Check him out! I hope you enjoy him! I have been modifying his control software a little bit lately, which is coming along well, right now I am trying to figure out a good way to adjust for the slight drifting in autonomous mode. I think the weight is leaning a bit right. He actually navigates fairly well for just having 1 sensor. Driving him with the RC is a whole lot of fun too! I will make a little vid in the next few days!

Like it? Hate it? Let me know what you think!