Society of Robots - Robot Forum
General Misc => Misc => Topic started by: Gertlex on July 10, 2011, 12:16:20 AM
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Howdy folks,
I posted this over at Trossen a few weeks ago... but since my 'roots' are here, here it is again :)
I'm working on my own quadruped, eventually for Mech Warfare. This quad is named Numa. Numa was the second of the ancient Roman kings... and so I can use royalty as an excuse to make a purple bot (e.g. I will eventually dye the brackets purple). And yes, I'm aware of the fat-guy video for Ozone's song, Dragostea Din Tei. I don't mind if you choose to associate the name with that
Hardware specs of Numa:
-4DOF per leg
-16 AX-12a servos in the legs, 1 or 2 for turret, eventually.
-Axon MCU
-Tristate buffer allows Axon to control the dynamixel servos. (Has purple LED to indicate that servos have power!)
-Can use either Xbee 1.25 mW communication, or serial port communication (Using the Parallax SIP xbee adapter on the robot side)
-2200 mAh 11.1 V LiPo battery for servos, 280 maH 9V NiMh battery for Axon and peripherals. Battery monitor on Lipo with LEDs and alarm...
-Trendnet wireless-g camera, ordered, and soon to be added. Will power with Lipo, but 5V supply via switching regulator.
-Using dremel, power switches for Axon power, LiPo power, and DC power supply power are integrated into standard Dynamixel brackets
I'm shooting for a very similar robot to Immortal (http://www.youtube.com/user/CireRobotics) (bot of a high school friend of mine), but figuring it out with my own hardware configuration.
Software approach:
-Axon runs my own code created with the modules/etc. from Webbotlib
-Webbot's GaitDesigner format is currently used for gaits
-I generate my gaits in this format using Mathematica to do the IK calculations. Using its visualization tools is awesome for verifying what my code actually does.
-I will be using VB.Net (Unless I learn a new GUI making tool in the near future) to make my own user interface. Input will quite probably use one of these (http://www.3dconnexion.com/products/spacepilot-pro.html) for awesome points.
-Working on coding up omnidirectional and possibly curved walking. Got the geometry/math done... coding just isn't exciting since that's what I do all day at work.
Status:
-Beginning of May: Started ordering parts.
-Mid May: Made tristate buffer and was finally able to control servos
-June 12: Finally got the bugs out of my Mathematica code and correctly have my robot walking forwards/backwards
-June 17: successful remote control of walking with xbee link.
-End of June/Early July, took Numa on "tour" in Colorado (aka visited friends) whilst mandatory evacuation order was in effect for Los Alamos due to wildfire ;) People are easy to impress
Stuff to do/determine
-Give the feet more traction
-How I will move camera/etc. (e.g. I'd save weight by using hobby servos for pan/tilt)
-Optimize the gaits for speed and balance
-Make compensating for changes in center of mass easier
-How to tie the gaits together to do more complicated walking
-Design custom body to nicely integrate all of the parts
-Guns
-Modeling the bot in Solidworks... chassis plates are the main focus for now... The turret gets in the way of things...
Youtube of walking:
Numa - Mech Warfare - Improved walking (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8wl3rGH4tI#)
Bunch of pics attached. More pics (and other tinkering stuffs...) on flickr (http://www.flickr.com/photos/gertlex/).
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In the last few months I've finished just about everything on Numa, and in good time too... there'll be some casual competition at the iHobby Expo in two weeks.
I stuck to posting updates over at Trossen, which you can find here (http://forums.trossenrobotics.com/showthread.php?4929-My-4DoF-Quad-Mech-Numa).
Lots of pics of this work are on my Flickr, here (http://www.flickr.com/gertlex).
And here's Numa as of half an hour ago:
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I see your bot:
http://forums.trossenrobotics.com/gallery/showimage.php?i=4514&c=3 (http://forums.trossenrobotics.com/gallery/showimage.php?i=4514&c=3)
got 3rd?
http://forums.trossenrobotics.com/gallery/showimage.php?i=4513&c=3 (http://forums.trossenrobotics.com/gallery/showimage.php?i=4513&c=3)
Unacceptable. SoR members only get 1st :P
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Admin, at least I foiled the ArbotiX microcontroller from being the brains of the top 3 bots :D
I had fun... I've got some video I've yet to upload that I took with my buddy's camcorder, but nothing too special.
I posted my pictures of Numa and a rambling of updates in this post (http://forums.trossenrobotics.com/showthread.php?4929-My-4DoF-Quad-Mech-Numa&p=51699#post51699), for those that are interested.