This week's picture shows an initial design concept which I was going to go with.  This design was rather nonstandard in that it didn't have any knees.  I had intended for the rotation (normally reserved for the hip) to be embedded in the feet, and to have the legs be retractable instead of bendable.  After careful thought, I reluctantly decided to discard this idea.  I'm not sure it is really workable.  Instead, I will pursue a more traditional leg architecture.  Given that the parameters of the robot are limited by the firefighting contest rules, I think I can start my specific mechanical design by looking at the foot.  I still don't have the capability to really build anything like a foot but maybe in October I will and there is much to do before then, in all areas!

Speaking of mechanical design, after looking at the servos and some graph paper, it is going to be really tough to build a reasonable walking robot that is only 12 inches tall!  18 would be so much easier.  But c'est la vie!

I'll conclude this busy but unproductive week with a rant about units.  I have reluctantly decided to use inches for distance measurements.  It sucks!  I like meters much better.  But so many things are geared to inches here that it is difficult not to use them.  The graph paper I just bought is five squares to the inch, easily available metal stock comes in eighth or quarter inch thicknesses... many other examples.  So I'll use inches + thousandths of an inch.  I will use grams for weight, though, as this doesn't seem to be as much of a problem.