First, let me start by saying that I have little to no knowledge in the field of robotics or electronics, but I'm a quick study, and a good problem solver/logical thinker. That being said...
Basically, I have an 11in Warrior Bug toy from Starship Troopers that I would like to turn into an autonomous robot, with realistic gait, and decent "A.I." I'd like to include a few different sensors, such as edge sensing, light sensors, IR sensors, and possibly touch sensors for the top and mouth. I'd like to be able to connect it up to the computer for updates in programming, etc, and it would be nice if it could learn too.
I was looking at possibly just taking a Wowwee Roboraptor, or Roboquad, hacking them apart, and just rearranging the sensors to where I want them, and having the motor controls work the legs of the Bug.
I could either do the aforementioned, or I recently stumbled upon the Oobug (
http://www.oobug.com/), which looks like it could be a promising base to start from.
Either way, I think hacking another bot would take care of the brains...
I think my largest problem is the legs though. I need to know how to create a realistically walking quadruped that walks similar to an insect or crab, with good stability and decent speed.
I looked into using servos, solenoids, and muscle-wire (shape memory alloy), for the legs. Servos seem to large for the dimensions of the bug, and I'm not entirely sure how solenoids would work on the legs. Muscle-wire seems to be good for simulating tendon/muscle movement, but I dont' know how strong, or responsive it is.
From what i've learned, I most likely want legs with 3 degrees of freedom.
I guess I want to create as realistic of a "bug" as possible... Oh yeah; and for under $200 if possible...
Here's pics of the Bug next to a credit card sized card for reference:
Any thoughts or input would be greatly appreciated!