Society of Robots - Robot Forum

General Misc => Robot Videos => Topic started by: bens on January 16, 2010, 12:43:31 AM

Title: Build your own simple, tiny hexapod walker
Post by: bens on January 16, 2010, 12:43:31 AM

Hey all.  Paul at Pololu wrote up a guide on how to make a simple hexapod walker (http://www.pololu.com/docs/0J42/all) using three sub-micro servos, two digital distance sensors, a programmable Micro Maestro servo controller as the brains, and a lot of hot glue.  There is a video at the top of the page that shows the result.  I don't know if this is the right forum to post this in, but I wanted to share since I know there are quite a few enthusiasts here who might be interested in a project like this.

Happy robot building!

- Ben

Title: Re: Build your own simple, tiny hexapod walker
Post by: madsci1016 on January 16, 2010, 07:42:45 AM

Wow, ok, I'm getting one, just so i can keep it on my desk at work.

Ben, thanks for feeding my robot building impulse. :-)

Title: Re: Build your own simple, tiny hexapod walker
Post by: bens on January 16, 2010, 05:29:27 PM

This would make a great little desk-walker/conversation piece, and it could even tap out rhythmic beats for you and your coworkers.  We'd love to hear how it turns out if you build one.

Paul has made a post (http://forum.pololu.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=2234) on the pololu forum about the project:

Quote

With the release of the Micro Maestro USB Servo Controller, I wanted to move up to a servo-based design, but keep the number of servos to a minimum. My goal was to design a hexapod that could be built in an afternoon without any special tools beyond what I usually use for electronics, and to demonstrate how the Maestro's scripting capabilities could be used to sequence motion for an interesting, autonomous, walking robot.

By the way, here's a picture of the finished product (it's about 2 inches high):

(http://www.pololu.com/picture/0J2114.350.jpg)

- Ben