[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xuRT9gC0CGs]
Who hasn’t fantasized about riding on a hexapod robot? With these detailed instructions, you very well could be living out your fantasy very soon. As you can see in the video, they opted for connected legs instead of 6 independent ones, so your dreams of riding the dancing Lou Bega bot may have to wait for another day.
[via Hack N Mod]
no title!
blank rss feeds of doooooooooom!!
sorry guys, intermittent connection problems here today. It is causing all kinds of issues.
I’m picturing the evil villian in an old comic book with 6 robotic legs and huge steel fists, pounding the crap out of the hero.
It actually reminds me of Dr. Arliss Loveless from “Wild Wild West.” I should do this, and make it look like the one on the movie. Do you think this can be done with four legs?
nice hack! and simple to built to…
That’s pretty sweet..
Might benefit from a lower center of gravity by moving the ‘payload’ to sit lower on the frame (or even *in* the frame..
That’s pretty funny…. I have been drawing plans for my own that’s pedal powered for the past week or so… everything from simple to insane. This has been an encouraging video.
(also… mine was not a hex, per say… though the one with fewest legs has 6… and the most has 18)
Meh… it’s not a “real” hexapod in my head, it’s only got one, maybe two degrees of freedom total. Enough to go forward and backward, left and right, but it can’t dynamically change leg height, or any of the other things that give walking robots an advantage. It’s a neat project, but I like “real” hexapods, with independent motors on every leg.
-Taylor
Cool and Disapointing at the same time.
When I read “rideable Hexapod” I thought of something like Warhammer 40k Spidertanks (at least i think it was wh40k).
Well yeah, its a hexapod, and its rideable…
Though I would like to see those guys use balljointed Legs and Hydraulics next time. :D
wold some one please get this guy some rubber stoppers to put on the bottom of the bots legs ???
or maybe get 3 pairs of kids sneekers ??
mighty cool hack !
You’ve got that Bruce Lee + MIT look going.
Good stuff on the hexapod. Rubber stoppers on the legs are a must.
Doesn’t look that rideable. Imagine being thrown off !
I could see this being easily converted to steampower.
ewww! his electronics are groety. He should be driving the motors with PWM from the arduino through a solid state h-bridge or something; the rest of the circuit also leaves a lot to be desired. If he were just going to drive the thing all direct with a joystick and not plan for the future, he could have even gone pure analog with a 556 and that joystick of his. The mechanics are just wonderful though. I hope this guy is an ME.
Oh, he is a mechanical engineer. He also learned microcontrollers just this semester, so mad props to him for applying his new knowledge in such an awesome way.
I wonder why he didn’t put rubber feet on the bot. I noticed the feet slipping a bit.
yeah it looks like hes loosing alot of traction on one or two of the legs, with some experimenting and pricisely measured rubber plugs for the end of the feet, he might be able to gain some speed, both from even grip as well as not having a lop-sided rotation
Being mechanical makes sense, its wierd the things you pick up in peoples speach “high amperage relays” someone with an electronics background would most likely have called them high current relays.
the design is solid and useful, especially for high school classes in a kit form or even just off plans.
I would be interested to hear what the rated payload of this walking frame is.
WH40K:
http://i128.photobucket.com/albums/p186/spi_photo/Irondefiler.jpg
or:
http://www.saguisag.com/photonduck/eradvehicles02.jpg
You all ever hear about the “Kinetic Sculpture Race” in Humboldt, CA, USA?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinetic_sculpture_race
I’ve been thinking of some kind of walker for that… maybe that guy’s wh40k suggestion would work?? heh..
Heh. If you want to see an eight-legged walking machine that can carry a few hundred pounds, check out the Mondo Spider: http://vimeo.com/1201608 (or http://www.mondospider.com)