SteamBot - Arm

The final phase of construction (Not counting texturing of course) was to give SteamBot a means to interact with the environment (AKA: Pick stuff up and move it around!). So I decided to give it an arm (Just the one). Originally, it was intended for the front (Where the pressure dials are), but it seemed a better idea to have it on the side, particularly as we might be having outfits over the front! (To be confirmed at a later date)

The first step was to continue the clockwork theme of the right-hand side, and build in a few more gears and cogs (And even a pendulum)

The unit was round ready to house an arm. I decided that the large black gear on the right would be the ideal for this.

The 'shoulder' of the arm unit was made from a pair of cylinders (Pushed into the model so they look semi-circular), and linked to the cog (So that it moved as one). The upper arm and forearm were both simple cylinders (With a few smaller cylinders acting as the joints). As each part of the arm was built on, it was linked with the previous section, so that it could all move as one. Now, if the shoulder moves, the rest of the arm will move with it. If the upper arm moves, so does the fore-arm. And the forearm can move independently (But later moves the 'hand' when it moves)

The hand clamp was constructed from a pair of splines (Drawn from the line tool), linked with a cylinder. As before, these were linked to the forearm (So that they move if the rest of the arm moves), and the pivots of both jaws were moved so that they rotated around the cylindrical join.

With this in place, the arm was now finished!