Hexapod CNC bot

posted Jun 11th 2008 6:30pm by Eliot Phillips
filed under: Uncategorized, cnc hacks

With all the 8 legged beasts lumbering about and hosting sausage fests, it’s nice to see the robots with 6 legs actually being productive. [Matt Denton]’s hexapod robot CNC router is quite an impressive piece of machinery. The B.F. Hexapod was built using Hitech’s HSR-5995TG which are much higher torque than similar sized units. Each foot is ball joint mounted to ease terrain adaptation. Only recently has [Matt] started playing with CNC. First, he did a pen plotter proof of concept. Now The bot can mill 3D surfaces in polystyrene. It’s still a little course and will probably always be a bit imprecise since it’s not bolted down. He’s also still planning to convert it from standard 1/8inch bits to 3mm router bits. We’d love to see this bot working away at an intricate bas-relief. Having no fixed work envelope really opens up the possibilities for machines like this and Hektor. Video and final product are embedded below.

[via Gizmodo]

Comments [15]

Reader Comments

Fantastic…I can imagine very large CNC artwork being done by a swarm of these bots. They could even drill locator holes into the surface and have expanding fasteners on their feet to temporarily bolt to a surface, and maintain register after moving to a new location. Large vertical or even curved surfaces…. The video made me feel like I’d been launched 50 years forward in time.

Posted at 6:50 pm on Jun 11th, 2008 by garrett

IF YOU DON’T STOP POSTING MORE THAN ONCE A DAY I WILL NAIL YOU TO A TREE

Posted at 8:03 pm on Jun 11th, 2008 by the daniel

>>2

In case you haven’t noticed, Elliot’s posted some awesome stuff between his links to gizmodo and boingboing. This is one of the best things this week.

If you’re going to complain about hackaday’s new growth then pick on a different article, like one of Juan’s autoplaying corporate jigs about innovative and expensive ways to fall your ass. Quality is a far more productive battle to pick over quantity.

Posted at 8:46 pm on Jun 11th, 2008 by Solenoidclock

Anyone else reminded of the Sentinels, from The Matrix?

Posted at 8:50 pm on Jun 11th, 2008 by Scott

>>3

i was just jokin’

Posted at 9:08 pm on Jun 11th, 2008 by the daniel

Uh, are you KIDDING me? :) This is awesome! Yeah, definitely like Sentinels, but this is really cool to see happening in real life. I mean, maybe it’s not that big of a deal to have robots walking around and milling things, but it seems sweet to me.

Posted at 9:08 pm on Jun 11th, 2008 by Nick Spacek

#4
Reminds me more of the robots in runaway. Gene Simmons should have won. Remember the gun he had? I still want one of those.

Posted at 9:34 pm on Jun 11th, 2008 by Spadefinger

Wait… this isn’t a hack… or instructions for a building project… wtf?
*confused*

Posted at 4:47 am on Jun 12th, 2008 by Louis

Now that would save me the trouble loading the mill into the truck for shows.
I just tell it to load itself :)

Posted at 6:09 am on Jun 12th, 2008 by Lester Caine

Crap, I want to build one of those so bad now….screw you guys for posting all of the hexapod information recently, you are going to sap my money reserves.

Posted at 7:35 am on Jun 12th, 2008 by morden

Thanks for the interesting comments on my robot.. I’ve been getting a lot of runaway comments!

Posted at 8:27 am on Jun 12th, 2008 by Matt

This is a beautiful piece of engineering, this kind of forward thinking could really help with tasks like this. No fixed location means no fixed work space, I wonder if it could have a changeable tool at the front so it could do multiple tasks; scrap bubble gum off the side walk, check bridges for cracks etc…

Posted at 10:48 am on Jun 12th, 2008 by Celina Nunes

By adding vacuum pads to the feet, he can turn the vacuum off and walk or turn the vacuum on and get a firmer attachment to the surface while cutting. Even if all the feet aren’t on smooth enough surfaces to attach, maybe some will will be, and he still has not lost anything by trying to attach. Might be a useful addition.

Posted at 12:50 pm on Jun 12th, 2008 by Barry Smith

Anybody who wants hack-a-day “classic”, change your bookmark to:
http://www.hackaday.com/category/daily/

Or for the rss feed:
http://www.hackaday.com/category/daily/rss.xml

Yeah, I know it’s not fun to have to change your personal habits, but it’s way easier than trying to get hackaday to change.

Posted at 12:57 pm on Jun 12th, 2008 by carlsonmark

This is absolutely amazing, the engineering behind it is pretty outstanding, what RPM cutting speed are you using?

Posted at 6:43 am on Jun 1st, 2009 by JS Peters