May 21, 2016 | By Benedict
Aldric Negrier, a 3D designer based in Portugal, has published his latest Instructables project: DriveMyPhone, a smartphone-controlled, 3D printed concept vehicle. DriveMyPhone, first conceived of 6 years ago, could be capable of navigating over land, water, and air.
In most disciplines, truly great projects—no matter how fraught with problems they might seem—usually end up seeing the light of day, even when they have been shelved for several years. Just look at Smile by the Beach Boys, Terrence Malick’s The Tree of Life, or that overdue tenth season of The X-Files. In the world of technology, however, time can be less kind: a great idea in 2010 can easily be obsolete by 2016. DriveMyPhone, however, might be an exception to that rule.
According to designer Aldric Negrier, DriveMyPhone has actually existed in digital form since 2010, at which time the robotics guru submitted the concept for two design competitions in Portugal. The design for the 3D printed gadget won them both. Negrier admits that the idea may have lost a bit of its magic over the past few years, but early responses to the project’s recent arrival on Instructables suggest that the people of 2016 want a DriveMyPhone. When you see what it can do, maybe you will too.
DriveMyPhone is a smartphone-controlled concept vehicle designed to move and navigate over land, water, and air. The device can be controlled by either a smartphone or computer via Bluetooth, and can even carry an onboard smartphone for remote access. The 3D printed vehicle is also fully modular: extra attachments can be fitted to the compact vehicle, enabling it to clean the house, (possibly) fly, and more.
The immense popularity of drones over the last few years has demonstrated that consumers will go crazy for remote control, camera-equipped vehicles. Since DriveMyPhone could be capable of traversing all the elements, it presents itself as a highly attractive, functional hybrid of a drone, an R/C car, and an R/C boat.
Although Negrier has not yet perfected the flying ability of DriveMyPhone, his 3D printable design is a sight to behold—a “work of art”, as he calls it, but also a challenge to robotics experts and engineers to try and breathe further life into the vehicle. Negrier’s aims were to create a vehicle that could move freely on land using tracks or omni-wheels, move freely on water using hollow wheels to float, and lift into the air while balanced on its two front wheels, using an attached propellor.
To create functional wheels and tires, Negier printed these parts of his model in flexible filament, with the other, more rigid parts of the 3D printed vehicle printed in PLA. To print Negrier’s design, a 3D printer with a build volume of at least 150 x 150 x 150 mm is required. With a 20% infill on most parts, Negrier used about 400g PLA (ABS could also work) and 100g flexible filament.
Check out the design over at Instructables, grab the 3D printing files from Thingiverse, and see if you’re up to the challenge.
Posted in 3D Printing Application
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