BYO Walker on the Cheap
http://www.kronosrobotics.com/Projects/WalkerP1.pdf
http://www.kronosrobotics.com/Projects/WalkerP2.pdf
http://www.kronosrobotics.com/Projects/WalkerP3.pdf
Instrux how to build a·small 6-legged walker from plywood. Uses 3 servos. Article·uses a different uC, but surely a BS2·will do as well or better!
Scratch-building is becoming a lost art, especially now that shop class has been eliminated in most·public schools. I like the·hand-sketched free-form legs in this online article. Clearly, some latitude in leg shape is possible if people want to make a custom leg design. If you keep the overall size, contact·and connection points the same, it should walk just like the original. Per the author, several robots can be made from one $5 piece of plywood. Grab a friend or student and start building!
$5. You probably have all the parts in your junkbox already. What are you waiting for?
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·"If you build it, they will come."
http://www.kronosrobotics.com/Projects/WalkerP2.pdf
http://www.kronosrobotics.com/Projects/WalkerP3.pdf
Instrux how to build a·small 6-legged walker from plywood. Uses 3 servos. Article·uses a different uC, but surely a BS2·will do as well or better!
Scratch-building is becoming a lost art, especially now that shop class has been eliminated in most·public schools. I like the·hand-sketched free-form legs in this online article. Clearly, some latitude in leg shape is possible if people want to make a custom leg design. If you keep the overall size, contact·and connection points the same, it should walk just like the original. Per the author, several robots can be made from one $5 piece of plywood. Grab a friend or student and start building!
$5. You probably have all the parts in your junkbox already. What are you waiting for?
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·"If you build it, they will come."
Comments
One of these days I'll have to build a three servo walker just to see how well they work. They move slower than wheels, but do the legs actually let them move over terrain that wheels or tracks can't? How much better is a 12 servo walker?
AFA a 3-servo walker, I don't expect too much besides basic walking. Probably akin to the BoeBot Walker kit, it moves fairly slowly (compared to wheels) on flat surfaces best. To move intelligently on irregular terrain would require many more servos and sensors. But just getting a simple walker to move as you intend is a Herculean feat and attempt-worthy. It will quickly make you appreciate the simplicity and efficiency of wheels.
But even clumsy, lumbering walkers are inherently cooler to watch than wheeled robots. Have you seen the Gakken Co-Robot? http://www.youtube.com/watch#!v=TtBj2Vl79aU
It's a kit available from Maker Shed: http://www.makershed.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=MKGK15
A one-motor all-mechanical robot with a hysterically spastic walk that eventually falls down, switches modes, rights itself, and starts walking again. It's quite painful to watch at first, but then it grows on you.
YOU WILL ORDER ONE WITHIN A WEEK. Just like I did... Take yours to UPEW!
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·"If you build it, they will come."
http://upload.robotics-bg.com/files/WalkerP1.pdf
http://upload.robotics-bg.com/files/WalkerP2.pdf
http://upload.robotics-bg.com/files/WalkerP3.pdf
Makes you yearn for the days of projects made of cheap plywood from the craft store and cut with a coping saw.
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Nah.
Au contraire mon frere, ain't nuttin' wrong with going retro: hand-drawn templates, carbon paper, a coping saw and some Elmer's glue. That's how real men did it.
Nah, thats how primitive man did it. Cad/Cam, CNC's, laser cutters, and robot welders is how modern man does it.
I do plan to rebuild my popsicle stick robot sometime with more appropriately sized servos.
Doesn't Michael Simpson also make quadcopters? I thought he wrote a series of articles about quadcopters recently.
Granted, but Simpson's plybot only uses 3 servos. How many times that will your PS robot devour?
I haven't seen a video of plybot moving yet, so I can't say how "mesmerizing" is may or may not be. Worth finding out IMO. In terms of walking action, I think my two-servo diff-drive walkers Spiderbot & Theobot were pretty cool to watch (feet skidding and all), but of course I started with existing mechanisms that were very well thought out. There are lots of other walkers out there to pick from, even the Boe-Crawler is pretty nifty. I'm surprised that we don't see more of those. OK, the $40 price tag might be part of it. Come to think of it, I bought two kits years ago when they were the daily deal, I might actually have to build one soon! I wonder if that kit would easily fit an Activity Bot.
Of course a Toddler is still hard to beat: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DgkBbVzDW7k
And this guy's wood scrap bipedal bot is also cool: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DWSbFfW3lC4
I wonder how much it will resemble the Stampbug?
It will have six times the servos which (according to me) equals six times the fun.
Yes, I'll give you that. All those pieces whirling around are a lot of fun to watch. There's just too many robots to build and too little time. We all have our favorites to work on since we can't build them all.
Agreed. I still need to get mine up and toddling. I also have Penguin which hasn't walked yet (at least not while I've had it).
Again, I agree. Frits (the bot's builder) is the guy who started Let's Make Robots. He has a lot of fun projects.
And to be clear, there's nothing wrong with craft store plywood and a hand saw if you don't have anything else. But life is short. The mechanized tools, if you have them, merely allows you to make more robots in the same amount of time.