Wheelchair WALL-E

The popular Disney character WALL-E redesigned into a 3D printable, exportable, and roll-able friend.

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Inspiration

I was greatly enthralled, amazed, and emotionally touched by the movie WALL-E. It told the story of a lonely robot, named WALL-E(Waste Allocation Load Lifter Earth-Class), who saves humanity from its path of imminent destruction through the strong pull of true emotional connections and ties. I wanted to bring this incredible and empowering character to life by 3D printing it and putting it into the realm of reality. However, I believed I could add something truly original to this personage and make him stand out against the monotony of daily life.

What it does

Being simply a character, capable of becoming anything in the eyes of the beholder, WALL-E comes with only basic features. These include his unforgettable shape, moving arms and limbs, and of course, his most unique function, the ability to undergo locomotion independently. These make him truly special.

How I built it

Using a 3D modeling software program known as Auto-desk Inventor, I was able to use pictures found on the internet to accurately model him using my own set of dimensions. I made all the parts separately and then joined them together in one assembly file. His unique wheels not only make him able to move but also work to stabilize them and keep WALL-E himself from falling over. Afterwards, I was able to export it as a separate part file and them as an STL to make it accessible to 3D printing.

Challenges I ran into

Modeling the wheels and the rest of WALL-E's body parts was difficult due to the lack of concrete dimensions on the separate parts as well as the unclear and undefined structure of the beloved personage. The wheels, especially, were challenging because they had to be designed so as to balance each other out, connect to WALL-E, and provide for the motion desired in a consumer friendly tool such as this. The spokes on the wheels were difficult to make due to the different ways they could be made and the different work planes that had to be created and utilized for this function. In addition, when working with different dimensions, putting together a single assembly was a difficult and grueling task that took many constraints and parameters to achieve the desired yet limited range of motion for each specific part.

Accomplishments that I'm proud of

Being able to finish this hack in the amount of time allotted, along with other aspects of its design and execution that I was able to overcome to complete the final product presented.

What I learned

Greater function in the Inventor space and the ability to be able to correctly use and integrate all the functions of this creation tool at my disposal. Also I learned how to use work planes, axes, and points in the proper way, as well as their respective drawing and editing tools.

What's next for Wheelchair WALL-E

I hope to be able to expand on the design I built and make it into a controllable robot with a motor for ease of motion and controllable arms. In addition, the eyes do not yet move or show the true emotion that makes WALL-E seem so utterly human, and lovable. This automation will allow for a cool robotic device, capable of controllable motion and a human appeal for its users.

Built With

  • 3d-builder
  • inventor
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