Sunday 26 February 2012

ArduRoller, now with Sugru bumper

Arduroller, enjoying its new Sugru bumper.
I haven't worked on ArduRoller much recently -- I've been distracted by other projects and moving house.  Just to get back into the swing of it, I decided to add a bumper.  Pretty essential in my new apartment, which has hardwood floors.

I used Sugru to form the bumper by hand.  I laid out some masking tape horizontally below where I wanted to put the bumper, just as a guide.  Then I rolled a sausage of Sugru and applied it in the gap.  I used my fingers and a clay cleanup tool to shape it and burnish it smooth.

The Sugru is still drying (it takes 24 hours to cure completely) so I haven't tried it out yet but it was a pleasure to work with.  A bit like soft bluetack, just a little bit of a chemical smell and just the right level of stickiness to stick to the piece and not to your hands.  Hope it stands up to the rigours of being a bumper, the ArduRoller tends to hit with a lot of force when it falls over!

My next planned mini-project is to add remote control to the bot.