A closer look at R2D2 [Boost]
After the first hype about the upcoming LEGO Star Wars Boost Droid Commander set, it is time to have a closer look at the individual Droids in the set. The most iconic and memorable of them all is of course R2D2. So what can we learn about R2D2 from the available images and video?
The most basic function R2D2 needs to perform is moving forwards and backwards. There are, of course, different ways of achieving this, and the LEGO designers tried out a few before settling on the solution they implemented in the final model.
The first option is motorising the “arms” on either side of the droid. The skeleton version of the droid looks very basic, but after adding some decoration the result is quite good looking:
However, the designers were looking for more functionality and tried something different:
Why use external motors to make R2D2 move? Well, if you place the hub upside down, you can use the outputs on the hub itself to move the arms on either side of the droid!
A second option is connecting wheels directly to the motor outputs on either side of the Boost hub. Again, adding some more bricks to the hub creates a more realistic looking droid.
An interesting detail in this model is the grey 24t gear you can see horizontally underneath colour and distance sensor in the head of the droid. You can also see there are two wires connected to the hub, one for the sensor and the other for the servo motor. It appears to indicate that the idea of making R2D2's head rotate was present form a very early moment in the design process and was implemented in subsequent versions.
How much of all these deign ideas made it into the final version? It would appear all of them and then some…
Time to take a closer look at the video. I have isolated the scenes that show R2D2 and slowed down the footage to better appreciate the functions. You can clearly see how R2D2 rotates its head. At the same time it turns on its axis using the wheels connected straight to the motor outputs on the hub. Next you see R2D2 drawing to a stop and pulling its arms close to its body, changing its configuration. Finally, R2D2 pulls out its secret weapon: the arm it used to interface with other computers and collect data.
There must be at least one more function in the R2D2 droid model in this set. The colour and distance sensor is now located on its body and it appears the reason for this particular location is to make it easy to remove all the Boost elemenst from the model and reuse them in one of the other droids without needing to dismantle R2D2. It is probably for this reason that the sensor is located on the side of the droid in the bottom half of its body. As a matter of fact, during the few seconds you can see the arm turning in the computer interface, you can also see a colour disk turning in front of the location of the sensor, allowing R2D2 to "see" how far it needs to turn the arm.
All in all there is a lot going on inside R2D2, and there are two more droids to explore…
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