RobotRemix #5 - Catfish

CATFISH

by Anton Vanhoucke

This Robot Remix is a combination of the

LEGO MINDSTORMS Set 31313 & LEGO

Technik 42076. The inspiration for the catfish

comes from the amazing fishes of Professor Ikuo

Yamato

The Design Phase :

I began with a drawing. Then, I made crude prototypes to test a lot of different mechanisms and

weight distributions quickly. I also invested a lot of time in a propulsion system that was only

in the end. I also wrote 10 different programs until I was happy. I think I took the fish completely

apart about 20 times during the desing process.

How it Works :

I'm especially proud of the movement. Using only 3 motors, I was able to animate one mouth, two fins, forward movement, and 3 tail segments. I strived to come really close to true fish behaviour in terms of size an frequency of movements.

Programming Complexity :

I spent about 30 - 40 hours programming the fish. It's hard to synchronize all movements. It is

therefore hard to transition smoothly from one movement (eg. standing still) to another (eg. a slight

left turn). All possible transitions have been made because of the fact that the button is remote

controllable.

There are 620 parts in the 31313 set and 1020 in the 42076 box. The fish has 530 parts. I built a

fishing rod with the leftovers, but you can't catch the fish with it!

If you want to make one too :

Build instructions an code can be downloaded here

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