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Building a Hexapod for under £30 UK ($50) — Parallax Forums

Building a Hexapod for under £30 UK ($50)

BritannicusBritannicus Posts: 98
edited 2011-04-21 13:40 in Robotics
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I'm always impressed to see what the real experts can do, and this is very modest by the standards of most, but I thought I'd post anyway.

I'm currently working on a slightly more complex hexapod, but whilst I was, I started this as a side project as I thought I should try something less adventurous (and expensive !).I also wanted something I could just bolt to a stamp 2 BOE as one might with the BOE bot.

Maybe someone else out there fancies building a basic hexapod, but doesn't want to spend a fortune, or months out of their life. So I thought I'd publish my novice project, in the hope that someone out there might find it of interest


My criteria for the project :-

1/ must cost less than £30 (plus my BOE) that incudes servos etc.
2/ a dummy (me) must be able to make it out of materials available in my DIY shop, electronics shop or junk
3/ must be able to be constructed in a weekend using DIY tools
4/ Design it from scratch (more fun that way!) - though I have to acknowledge lots of inspiration from the "insectibot". and a lot of help from the forum in problem solving ( thanks guys)!.
5/ Must be small enough to fit in my desk drawer- the coin for scale in the pic is a UK 10p - ( almost exactly 1 inch across )

I just finished the physical manufacture (see above) - I've rigged it to be controlled through an old TV controller, so far just I'm working on the gait - this uses the "alternating tripod gait" so only requires 3 cheap 9g servos (£3.99 UK each) with a few modifications to keep the cost down. Another reason for keeping it small !

Control is from an old TV remote through an IR detector (under £2) which seems to work really well. So far my code is very simple to prove it moves and that the control system works.

Next step is to write some more sophisticated walking routines. If anyone is interested, I happy share my designs and code.
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Comments

  • ercoerco Posts: 20,256
    edited 2011-04-02 11:08
    Very nice effort! I would be interested to see some videos.

    Did you know about this BoeBot Walker add-on? It goes on sale occasionally for ~$15...

    http://www.parallax.com/StoreSearchResults/tabid/768/List/0/SortField/4/ProductID/314/Default.aspx?txtSearch=walker+kit
  • BritannicusBritannicus Posts: 98
    edited 2011-04-17 12:22
    Hi Erco -

    Thanks for the encouragement. been away a few days, but now have the bot trotting forwards backwards and turning very acceptably - WIll be posting a video soon. I hadn't seen the walker, and I've chosen a rather different solution to making the legs work (less mechanically difficult to make and I think, slightly more options in control). I've now added some noises, but this has added £2 to the build for a cheap piezo buzzer.
  • BritannicusBritannicus Posts: 98
    edited 2011-04-18 06:30
    As promised - I've now put the first movement on Youtube - it was struggling a bit with a slippery floor, but not a bad start I think - As you can see the leg configuration is quite different to the "walker" - this makes it easier to hand make, and provides for a bit more flexibility in the turns.

    I've added some noises, but they're little more than place holders, and I could do with somethign more imaginative, I will probably enhance this with time. Anyway - thought I would share the result.
  • ercoerco Posts: 20,256
    edited 2011-04-18 09:30
    I want to see, but the video won't play. I get an error message that it's a duplicate of a previously uploaded video.
  • BritannicusBritannicus Posts: 98
    edited 2011-04-18 11:39
    My mistake - I made a mess of loading it at first - the link is here

    I've edited my original post so that it now shows the correct link

    sorry about that !
  • ercoerco Posts: 20,256
    edited 2011-04-19 09:17
    Quite ingenious! You have a great motion there (particularly nice turns) , and since you made it all yourself with standard parts and hand tools, it's all the more amazing. I (and others, I'm sure) would love to see some nice detail photos of your linkage if you care to share.

    Great job, walkers are the coolest! I have finally amassed enough cheap servos to build one. It's just finding the time.
  • BritannicusBritannicus Posts: 98
    edited 2011-04-19 11:25
    Cheers Erco,

    Realy pleased it meets with the approval of someone who really knows what he's up to. I'll put a new thread together and post some of the designs. I just did this whilst I got stuck into my bigger project which is a 12 servo (ultimately I'd like to go to 18 ) walker. The idea was I could prototype some code on it for sensors etc. I'd like to rig it with sonar range finding ready for it's big brother when it comes along.

    What I found really striking was the code was so easy to write, in fact my 10 yr old wrote the sequence for detecting the IR from the TV remote. I'm currently building up a bit of courage to experiment with a propeller - it would be nice to play a tune and walk at the same time :-)

    Looks like that'll be a whole new challenge.
  • ercoerco Posts: 20,256
    edited 2011-04-21 13:40
    Pretty smart 10-year-old! The apple didn't fall far from the tree, Britannicus...

    Looking forward to seeing many more walkers from you. Walkers are inherently cool. I just bought a new Hexbug Spider, a 6-legged walker that only uses 2 motors: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFrBtOpXzlc

    It is quite ingenious, evne though it is a blatant copy of Jamie Manzell's spider tank robot: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6qpSOjtB2E

    He has a long & winding & funny thread about trying to build a giant ride-on version: http://www.youtube.com/user/JMEMantzel#p/u/26/CThcTsLmg_s
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