Bateson
" If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly and redistributed at will, then do not submit it here." I'm fine with that. Page started by DGoncz 20170805 after a creative winter and particularly July.
Bateson is a RepStrap design concept and at this writing no Bateson has been built. Also, Bateson is a concept for how to build, not what to build so there may be many bootstrapped Batesons which may replicate to varying degrees of success. Bateson is designed, unlike all other RepRaps to my knowledge, to array densely such that each Bateson supports the others. So it's a cube, or rather, the Bateson concept includes a design rule: a Bateson should fill allspace.
Secondarily, all the axes in a Bateson are identical. Pairs of secondary struts joins pairs of axes and a tertiary strut joins them, reducing 8 motors in 4 axes to 4 secondary struts and 1 position defining tertiary strt. There are 3, crossing in a folllowerblock to which is mounted effectors oF any type.
Thirdly, a Bateson hangs on a diagonal or sits braced within an octet truss, allowing, if desired, cheapie threaded rod leadscrews to be used, subject to another design rule: keep accelerations below 1 G to avoid backlash; all the parts are biased downwards by gravity. But it's oriented diagonally. It isn't a squat cube. The symmetry is taken to the extreme.
A fitment opposite the hangpoint supports various worktables for 3D printing or a lathe tailstock that allows Batesons to make their own leadscrews. The platform defines the work envelope by blocking certain positions of travel of the tertiary struts.
Bateson includes a an auxiliary foundry and facility for spinning its own machinable wax stock.
See Wolfram and other sources for the Prince Rupert problem of the largest square that fits through a cube. It's larger than the side of the cube, making Bateson a RepRep that can, without accounting for its own infrastructure, print parts larger than itself, and build a larger Bateson, not just from joining pieces, but from frame parts. This figure of 115% needs some study.
There is no name for the Prince problem of the largest line that fits through a cube; the diagonal is about 1.7, the cube root of three. Bateson can, once again ignoring its own infrastructure, double its size in two generations (1.7^2>2).
An array of 3 x 3 x 3 Batesons is a Rubik. Such a Rubik would strengthen and support the central Bateson and would, like just one Bateson, be amenable to being surrounded by an octet truss to further strengthen the array at low mass cost. Post such rigidification, a Rubik's central Bateson could be fitted with an effector ballast attachment allowing scrap heat from the melt effector to be taken from a surround of water, chilling motors for milling and water to turn to ice for needed ballast for milling to resist vibrations. 27 BAtesons with 4 axes each fits into the 127 node USB design space including a boot drive for the whole machine.
An array of 5 x 5 x 5 Batesons is a Kubik and is notable in that there are fewer blocks needing extension by octet truss than there are in use as joiners between cube legs, and this is true as scale grows to 6 x 6 x 6 and beyond.
Bateson arrays to billions; cubes fill allspace as mentioned.
One Bateson with octet truss is an octagon and can sit on a desk. It can be small or large.
A cubical Bateson can be small, large, or huge. An ironwork frame building could be made up with a Bateson in each room of a pyramidal building.
DGoncz has contacted America Makes about Bateson.
I'm building a model Bateson of 3/4 inch square aluminum tubing, 5/8 inch ID, roughly 17 inches long, with analog servo drive, and may or may not inbuild potentiometers from resistive sheeting.
So that's the current edit on Bateson.
