• Question: What is the best material to make a robot out of and why?

    Asked by Aemun682 to Carson on 6 Nov 2017.
    • Photo: Carson Vogt

      Carson Vogt answered on 6 Nov 2017:

      That really depends. What sort of robot are you thinking of?

      Most of the time, if it’s a small robot, it’s best to make it out of plastic (think 3D printer material, like PLA or ABS).

      If the robot is a bit larger, maybe start thinking aluminum. Wood is fine too, it’s surprisingly strong, though unless you have a laser cutter, making parts might be a bit of a struggle.

      Aluminum is good for pretty large robots depending on the application. If it needs to be big and strong and not terribly efficient, I’d say go with steel. I might say titanium, but that’s expensive.

      If you know the forces that your robot will be under, ie if it has legs how much weight they have to hold, and you’re not worried about it being hit by anything, you can think about composites (carbon fiber, Kevlar etc), but I’ve never seen a robot actually made out of these that doesn’t also fly :/

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