Rhombot

Release status: experimental

Description

The Rhombot is based around the idea of moving the build platform instead of the extruder, like in the MakerBot RepRap
It is the brain child of Dr. Leemon Baird, aided with the help of Dr. Wayne Brown and Louis DeScioli of the United States Air Force Academy

See the description on Thingiverse at http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:5432
The rhombus linkages are vaguely similar to the Sarrus Z02 -- can we start from there as a rough draft, or must we start from scratch?
- Probably from scratch. The constraints are different in the two cases, which leads to different designs.
There has been a brief discussion[1] of a similar parallel Cartesian drive train.[2].
- That robot has some similarities, but it requires 3 sets of rails, so either all 3 motors move, or there are 3 belts. In the Rhombot, there are no rails, belts, or moving motors.
Eliminating rails is a big step towards a fully printable reprap

FILE ID#	TYPE	DESCRIPTION	AVAILABLE FORMATS	CREATED/RESERVED BY
stl_to_print	Model Assembly	These are stl files needed to print out the Rhombot	.zip	LDeSci 3:35 PM, 27 February 2011 (MST)