Body
Early versions of Robop were assembled through the neck opening but this was extremely difficult to do. Current versions are assembled through a side panel under the wing. The heaviest item and the one that is installed first is the battery pack. This is clamped and finally bonded in place within the leg cavity. By doing this the battery cannot move. While this makes changing battery packs difficult it does insure that Robops can be shipped without the battery coming loose and wrecking the inside.
Robop’s wings are extremely light but the servos can lift several kilograms. This allows Robop to work in very high winds and if the wings get covered in snow. Should the wings get frozen solid, the electronics can detect this, shutting down the movement for 2 hours before trying again.
The head is a one piece moulding with the eyes glued in place after painting. Movement is achieved using a servo attached to a special neck collar.
Making the feet proved quite a technical challenge being thin and difficult to get out of the mould. A special rubber mould had to be developed to achieve consistency.
The body wings, head and feet of Robop are made of composite materials of which the principle one is fibreglass. Getting the body mouldings right was one of the most difficult tasks in the development of Robop. Our objective was to make Robop as close to a real peregrine falcon as possible. However, this objective had to be tempered with practical realities of making a product that had to contain electronics, batteries, servo mechanisms and other hardware. Three complete revisions of the production moulds were built before we reached the final version you see today.
