My Motor

Building An Electric Motor 

            Building an electric motor will take time, effort, money, and no shortage of luck when its all said and done but the payoff can be worth it. For me, I ran into man many problems in the course of building my motor but eventually I got it up and running even if it was not as fast as I would have liked.

What You Need to Start Building:

·      Strap iron 6” by 5/8” by 3/3n” (or 1/8” ).

·      100’ of #24 (must be 24) magnet wire

·      2 16-penny spikes

·      Tape 1” wide

·      Darning needle or piece of a coat hanger

·      Copper-stand lamp wire 2” long

·      Base board 7” by 6” by 3/4”

·      4 screws and set of nails

·      1’ hookup wire

·      6 volt-battery

Once you have gathered the necessary supplies budget for at least 3 more trips to Home Depot because you will need a lot more than that to get this baby going.

Steps To Building:

1.     Take two 6” L brackets and place them in a U shape, with the bottoms overlapping to create your coil

2.     Wrap them in single stranded wire for the best result with one end of the wire coming out on the right side and one on the left

3.     Tape the coil to your baseboard

4.     Next drill two L brackets to hold your metal rod in place

5.     Taking your separate metal rod, create your armature by first taping two smaller metal rods perpendicular to your larger one, and then wrap in magnet wire

6.     Next create terminal by drilling a hole in a cork and sliding it onto your metal rod

7.     Wrap the terminal in copper and connect magnet wire to the ends

8.     Next set up 2 L brackets to create the brushes

9.     Use any kind of wire as a brush and connect to the battery

10.  Take other brush and connect to one end of the coil

11.  Take other end of the coil and connect to the battery

Finished Product-

Problems: For me the first problem was drilling everything in place which took hours on hours. Please note that nails are sometimes impossible and I would definitely advise using a power drill and screwing in your brackets. Also get a larger baseboard then needed becuase the more space you have the better. The biggest problem though, was wrapping (and rewrapping) the magnet wire along with continuously remodeling the positioning of the metal rod. Finally you may also encounter problems as I did once everything is actually finished and see that the motor does not even work. My only advice for this would be to budget time for questions, research and more trial and error to get the motor up and running.



Here is my electric motor in action. 

The History of the Electric Motor

What is an electric motor?

An electric motor is is a device used to convert electrical energy to mechanical energy. It takes an electric current and uses it to spin a rod therefore generating mechanical power to push, pull and do all sorts of everyday actions that we think are just second nature. For example electric motors are used in vacuum cleaners, dishwashers, computer printers, fax machines, video cassette recorders, machine tools, printing presses, automobiles, subway systems, sewage treatment plants, water pumping stations and more and are among the most important inventions of all time.

How Does It Work?

The principle on which motors operate is Ampere's law, named after "The link between electricity, magnetism, and movement was originally discovered in 1820 by French physicist André-Marie Ampère (1775–1867)." This law states that a wire carrying an electric current produces a magnetic field around itself. As shown below, when a wire carries a current therefore producing an magnetic field, you can use that magnetic field to generate mechanical energy through setting up a loop for rotation. One side will be attracted to the north pole and one to the south but when set opposite they will begin to constantly rotate creating power.

History:

The inventors that applied this principle were "Englishmen Michael Faraday (1791–1867) and William Sturgeon (1783–1850) and American Joseph Henry (1797–1878)" First in 1820, a Danish physicist, Orsted, confirmed the connection between electricity and magnetism, followed by the discoveries of Ampere. Faraday then progressed the foundation of the electric motor through his 1821 experiment followed by Barlow’s wheel using electromagnetism. Finally a german scientist, Jacobi, created the first electric motor. The first patent however went to Thomas Davenport in 1837.

Types of Current

alternating current (AC): An alternating current does exactly what you would expect, alternates or periodically switches direction. In an AC motor you add a communicator which is a metal ring divided into two separate halves and its job is to reverse the electric current in the coil each time the coil rotates through half a turn. At one instant, one part of the loop is attracted by the north pole of the magnet, and at the next instant, it is attracted by the south pole of the magnet. As the current changes directions, the loop is forced to spin on its axis therefore creating a motor.

direct current (DC):    Electric currents in DC motors move in one direction

For more information of electric motors this video will explain: 

Robotics: The Past, the Present, the Future

What are robots?

Robots are defined as a machine capable of carrying out a complex series of actions automatically, especially one programmable by a computer but are pretty much everywhere and anywhere in our everyday lives. The word "Robot" comes from the Czech word “robota” which means “forced work or labor,” and the study of robots is what is known as Robotics. Forms of robotics have been around for 2000 years but the science has advanced drastically in the last few centuries. At the rate of growth robots are looking to advance the intelligence of humans with the next 30 years and though one definition of them describes "(especially in science fiction) a machine resembling a human being and able to replicate certain human movements and functions automatically," already these machines replicate human activity with ease and pretty soon telling the difference between a robot will be no easy task. But before we can look into the future advances of robotics it is important to understand their past and origin. 

History of Robots

Robotics date as far back as 2000 years as many scientists started the gradual progression of the robots we think of today. One example is in 270BC an ancient Greek engineer named Ctesibus made organs and water clocks with movable figures. A simple invention, but a step towards making machines emulate tasks or complete tasks that a human would otherwise do. Other great thinkers like Archimedes and The Hero of Alexandria were mathematicians and physicists that also contributed to the field of robotics long before technology would make complicated robots possible. Flash forward to 1495, artist and mathematician Leonardo da Vinci creates what may be the first humanoid robot though it cannot be confirmed if the design was actually ever produced. Then robotics made a rapid progression as in 1709 "The Duck", invented by Jacques de Vaucanson. The mechanical beast could flap its wings, eat, and digest grain with each wing containing over four hundred moving parts and still mystifying people today. Robot expansion really took off in the 1900s though, with the development of the first industrial robot in 1959 by George Devol and Joseph Engelberger. Also, robots began to be utilized for more than just actions on our planet, but in 1957 the Soviet Union launched ‘Sputnik’, the first artificial orbiting satellite which marked the beginning of the space race.

A few decades later robots such as Deep Blue begin to outsmart humans as this super computer beat the number one chess player in the world. Not to mention that this is merely the beginning, as though the history of robots has been promising, the future hold possibilities we can yet to comprehend. 

Present Day Robotics

Most robots today are used to do repetitive actions or jobs considered too dangerous for humans. No more are the factory jobs that had companies worrying about worker health, safety precautions and extra expenses that come with maintaining human occupation. The workers of the future are the workers of today and for the most part, robots are the solution. Even so the robots are today may not be the ones taking over the Earth and enslaving humans...yet, but they are vital to our entire society and way of life. The various types of robots used everyday can range from industrial robots to household robots, medical, service and military robots, space robots and of course robots used simply for our own amusement. Andy Rubin, SVP at Google is a big contributor in the field of robotics today and many are wondering when the Google super power will actually become conscious. But for other uses and benefits that robots can provide, medical robots are becoming a pressing topic with much upside. As Medical News Today describes, "robots were used in 422,000 surgeries in the US - 15% more than the year before" which means that robots are taking the place of doctors, and they are doing a better job. With little to no room for error in operations robots are the perfect machines for the job as they do not make mistakes and when they do, it does not happen again. Not to mention that robot operations have grown by 15 percent in only one year which puts the growth rate for medical robots at a stunning high. Not only do they medically present great benefits but the government and NASA have collaborated to utilize their efficiency.  They even developed a system for the army is known as MASH (Mobile Advanced Surgical Hospital) where a soldier could be loaded into a vehicle with robotic surgical equipment and could be operated on by a surgeon in the mobile unit. For example P.W. Singer talks about the possibilities of robots in war scenarios in the future and present day. 

Overall, present day robotics has only touched the surface on the possibilities that the future holds. One thing that is certain though is that robots will continue to play a huge role in society, as they are already the subject of major media and social attention. 

Robotics in Today's Society

Today robots have captivated the minds of millions in theaters, video games, books and more as the sci-fi realm has created hundreds of fictional ploys on what the future can hold. 

These movies, suggest everything from the possibility of taking over the Earth and enslaving humans, to even moving away from our planet and exploring the possibilities of life on other planets or spaceships. In almost all there is a robot civilization that becomes "conscious" and therefore decides to fight their human creators but at least for now, this does not seem like the case yet. (See technological singularity blog for more details) Anyway moving away from fiction, we as humans are now looking for more than just movies with robots tending to our every need but robots that will actually socialize with us, talk to us and take care of us as the article, Are We Ready for the Rise of Social Robots states, " In a paper, computer scientist Matthias Scheutz at Tufts University points out that the efficacy of social robots could one day be turned against us. “If it turns out that humans are reliably more truthful with robots than they are with other humans, it will only be a matter of time before robots will interrogate humans,” he comments."But for the future of robotics, much is in store. Already rapid progression has spiraled out of our control and who knows, maybe one day the robots will be the ones watching.

Sources: http://robohub.org/5-areas-in-robotics-that-will-transform-society-and-their-economic-impact/
http://biomed.brown.edu/Courses/BI108/BI108_2004_Groups/Group02/Group%2002%20Website/history_robotic.htm
http://www.businessinsider.com/important-robotics-people-2014-6#some-great-technologists-have-a-wild-side-16
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/280518.php
http://idahoptv.org/sciencetrek/topics/robots/facts.cfm
http://www.ted.com/talks/pw_singer_on_robots_of_war?language=en
http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20141016-the-odd-things-robots-do-to-us
http://www.allonrobots.com/types-of-robots.html
http://www.robotshop.com/media/files/PDF/timeline.pdf
http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/robotics#m_en_gb0714530