Many if not most good hacks come from scrap or unused parts, but this hexapod robot takes it to a new level. [Helmut] wrote in to tell us about his ‘bot built from discarded electronics. As with most of the little walkers that we’ve featured here, this robot features some basic obstacle avoidance with a sensor array on the head unit.
The way the head controls this robot is really the interesting thing about this setup.Rather than send a signal to tell servo motors to walk in a certain gait, the head physically tilts in the direction that it should go. Although it’s somewhat hard to tell, it appears that a driving motor in the head assembly pushes a sort of camshaft down into the body. This is then mechanically coupled to the legs causing it to walk in the correct direction.
Be sure to check out the videos after the break, featuring narration by a computer in English, or by a human in German if you happen to sprechen sie Deutsch.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lNZohu0-QhY?rel=0&w=470&h=315%5D
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3yOy7mXl3r8?rel=0&w=470&h=315%5D
Heh, it’s like Jamie Mantzel’s Giant Robot Project, even down to using scrap to build it.
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL13A11662BDE6EB83
And here is possibly the mechanism that makes it walk wherever the head is looking.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=is7x_atNl94
man, this giant robot project is awesome!
looking at part 12 right now! Cannot stop!
Yup – that definitely looks like Manzel’s robot design to me. I am pretty sure that he Hexbug spider robot also uses the exact same mechanism…
video 62 aaaand counting…
A commercially available robot with the same design, for those who want to examine it in detail.
http://www.hexbug.com/mechanical/spider/
You may want to read this controversy and
buy this other toy which actually earns the inventor some money, if I understand correctly:
http://www.combatcreatures.com/attacknids
A toy company worked with Jamie to make a line of their own. He says there will be a development platform/hacker friendly version coming soon.
http://www.wowstuff.com/product/Attacknids/124
ODEX-1jr :)
This is a copy of jamies robot :(
He would be extremely upset to see this, very sensitive to people taking his ideas.
This is not a real copy of Jamie’s or Hex Bug’s it’s a mix from both.
If you take a look at the HD version you can see the little differences.
The development of the linkage has been made a long time ago in England by an unknown developer for a spring-powered toy.
The main reason to build this robot is to show other people an easy and cheap way to build a robot platform.
People in India and Africa have not the money for high tech servos and electronics.
They have tons of E-Waste from the rich countries in front of their door.
Let them build robots in making a business and sell it to the rich people in America or Europe.
Or as a platform for a school project