DIY Walkers
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LEGO Punchers

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A 4-Bar Linkage Optimized for Punching
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Battling is fun, and guarantees that students will innovate to win

​Note:  Students should wear eye protection when battling with punchers


These punchers can also be motorized, but this requires converting the circular motion of the motor to oscillation.  This can be done by programming a servo motor to do a partial rotation, or by adding a crank and a 6th bar to the mechanism as done in the following video:
Motorized punchers could also be added to mobile robots to create a type of "Boxing Bot", but the robot's frame would need to be strengthened to handle the puncher's oscillating force.  If you were to play with this idea, I recommend using shorter beams to reduce the weight and inertial forces generated by the punching action. 
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Also, Boxing Bots may be a better application for an EV3 build, since the weight of the brick would help to absorb the inertial forces generated by the punching action.
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Racing to Build the Champion Puncher
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These punchers use a basic 4-bar linkage that students can easily modify to improve performance, which is easiest to do before adding the 2nd side of both the handle and the 4th bar.  Alternatively, you can test changes with the simulator below - but remember that when determining the length of LEGO beams to enter into the simulator, the first hole is always counted as zero as shown in the image above.  
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4-Bar Linkage Simulator for Optimizing LEGO Punchers
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Below is the embedded simulator.  After changing a bar's length, click somewhere other than a slider bar and then press the space bar to see the new linkage, and use your keyboard's left/right arrows to rotate the crank.

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​Building Instructions

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​Let's start by building Bar 2:
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Bar 2's Parts
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Next, we'll build Bar 1, the handle:
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Bar 1's Parts
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Next, attach Bar 2:
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Then attach Bar 3's 15-hole beam:
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Add a 3L blue pin to Bar 3 for the rubber band to loop around:
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Then, flip it over and attach a red 9-hole beam to the other side:
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​Next, build Bar 4:
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Bar 4's Parts
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Then, flip it over and add the red 9-hole beam to the other side:
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Finished!
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  • Home
  • Walker ABC's
  • Build Instructions
    • TrotBot Builds >
      • TrotBot Linkage Plans
      • TrotBot's Legs Simplified
      • Quadruped TrotBot
      • Hexapod TrotBot
      • TrotBot
      • TrotBot, Ver 3
      • Mindstorms TrotBot, Ver 3
      • Wooden TrotBots by Automata Korea Design
      • 3D Printed TrotBot by Scott Anderson
      • Mindstorms TrotBot, Ver 2
      • Mindstorms TrotBot
      • Large-Scale TrotBot
    • Strider Builds >
      • Strider Linkage Plans
      • Strider Ver 3's Legs
      • Strider Ver 3's Frame
      • Mindstorms Strider Ver 3 Mod
      • Strider
      • Strider's Legs Simplified (ver 2's)
      • RC Strider
    • Mechanical Spider >
      • Klann Mechanical Spider - Climbing Mod
      • Klann's Spider, EV3 Long Legs
      • Klann High-Step Mod
      • Klann's Spider, Ver 2
      • Mindstorms Klann
      • Klann's Spider, Ver 1
      • Klann's Linkage Plans
    • Strandbeest
    • LEGO Spot Micro
    • Linkage Warm Ups >
      • Lever Paradox
      • LEGO Biters
      • LEGO Punchers (4 bar linkage warm-up)
      • LEGO Hopping Robot
    • Hiro Labo
    • Whegs (wheel-legs)
  • Customize
    • Strider Linkage Optimizer
    • Klann Linkage Optimizer
    • Strandbeest Optimizer for LEGO
    • TrotBot Optimizer
    • 4 Bar Linkage Optimizer
    • 4 Bar Walking Linkage
    • 6 Bar Walking Linkage
  • Linkage Simulation
    • Python Linkage Simulator
    • Scratch Linkage Simulator
  • Blog