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Robot Remix #6 - CAT3RPILLAR

By Asha Seshan - ROBOTMAK3R

The Cat3rpillar by Anika Vuurzoon and Nard Strijbosch


The Caterpillar is a unique combination of the LEGO Technic Forest Machine (42080) and LEGO MINDSTORMS EV3 31313 set. 

Design Idea:


Anika and Nard have a background in building LEGO animals. Therefore, when given the opportunity come up with their own remix design, their first thought was to construct an animal. The Technic Forest Machine set comes with pneumatic elements and this gave them the idea to create an animal that would crawl. The green panels in the Technic set were a perfect fit for this project. The idea of a caterpillar was born!

They started with an initial design sketch. The most challenge part of the construction was making the caterpillar crawl as fast as possible. To do this, they had to gear up the pneumatic pump to make it pump fast enough to ensure that there was sufficient air pressure.

Although the final design has all the functions in the original sketch, Anika and Nard did have to redesign their model a few times given that they were limited to the elements available in the two sets. For example, given the limited number of green panels, they had to come up with a few different designs for the body of the caterpillar. The end result is a very friendly, crawling, green Cat3rpillar powered by MINDSTORMS and pneumatics.

How it Works:

The touch sensor is used to activate the crawling mechanism on the Cat3pillar. The pneumatic cylinders make the caterpillar move forward. The pneumatic switch is controlled by the EV3 brick. When an obstacle is confronted by the insect, the caterpillar stops moving. The Infrared sensor is used to detect the obstacle. The color sensor is used for an additional interactive feature. When the Cat3rpillar sees green, the head will move. When it sees red, the head will stop.

Watch the video to see how it all works.

Build Instructions and Code:

You can create your own Cat3rpillar using the following instructions.
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