Piezo buzzer locomotion?

[Vertigo]

so i had this idea for a tiny robot:
make a 2 motor beam walker, but instead of placing the servos at the usual angle, keep them perfectly level
and then give it piezo buzzers for feet.
feet moving forward would be buzzing so as to reduce friction, while the rear moving legs are not buzzing
so they have more grip.
this way the bot would kind of scate across slick surfaces.

will it?
does a piezo buzzer thingy create strong enuff vibrations for a significant grip reduction?

also:

if this is at all possible, is it feasible?
can i produce enuff vibrations to get the job done without having to pack
so many batteries that the weight of those will render it useless again?

if i attach things to the buzzer for a contact surface between the buzzer and the floor,
would the vibrations be transferred, or would the buzzer just fail?

---

another idea i had was to build a hovercraft with a fan + compartment for weight reduction, a fan horizontally on top
for forward/reverse and use stationary buzzers to steer using the same low/high drag principle.

could that work?

could i use a BEAM circuit to route feedback from the buzzers back to the fan so it adjusts itself to reduce
pressure on the piezos so as to maintain a stable reduced weight, in spite of changes in the surface or damage to the
air compartment?

if not, can it be done with arduino?

[sacherjj]

The answer to most of this is, build it and see.  You haven't stated what your goal is, just two ideas.  So there is no way for anyone to determine if either of these are the best solution for the goal.

You your goal is learning, then get to it.  How about building a tripod with piezo element for feet.  You can use a 555 circuit to have variable frequency to drive the piezos and a small battery.  Now try seeing how far it will slide with the elements vibrating or not.  My guess is you will only see a difference in perfectly flat surfaces.  But try it.  You will learn something.

[Vertigo]

i intend to, but i do not have the parts yet.
im gonna start ordering stuff hopefully by the end of the month.

just wanted to check if my idea was not entirely retarded or if i misunderstood the concept of
a piezo disk, so i know how many of them i want to order.

[sacherjj]

Deflection of a piezoelectric disk is too small to detect visually.  I don't really think the effect you are trying to produce will do much on anything but a perfectly smooth surface.

[Vertigo]

i was thinking of attaching something like a BB to the middle of the disk to concentrate the vibrations to
a small point.

[sacherjj]

i was thinking of attaching something like a BB to the middle of the disk to concentrate the vibrations to
a small point.

If you get a copper clad BB, you can probably solder it.  I would be careful that you only do it at a small area, because you could change the properties to stiffen the piezo and make it no longer vibrate.

Another whacky solution might be a small cell phone vibration motor on each leg. 

[Vertigo]

the BB's i have are lead, so i'm thinking of either hot or super glue.

now that u mention it, some of those button shaped vibrators would work well.
ill have to add those to my shopping list.