Hoppers

 More thinking, will have to start doing soon! 

A bit of design thought on the Hungry Cattle challenge. We needed at hopper to supply feed so the following has been sketched up. It's basically a box, the hopper, with a funnel and valve mechanism underneath, opened with a simple servo movement.

If we make one big hopper, 1litre, then we'd only need one and it would weigh 1kg, but to distribute the weight and make the size more manageable, we use three identical ones, positioned on the front of the robot. 

 That isn't the real chassis, just something to get an idea of how it will fit together. As a first design its not to bad but needs a lot more in the way of components. The hopper separating from the mechanism, so we can just make three and reuse them between designs. The valve and hopper mechanism will likely be remade several times, as they have to accommodate the servo and the attachments between the two. The valve also has to be reasonably tight fitting and still move. Next update on this will be pictures of a real one, maybe even a working video!