First Robot build Octopod

ok fixed it.

ok legs are being cut.

order is complete from lynxmotion when it gets to my brothers house he will punt it my way. Hopefully it ships today. (hint hint but i know your moving to a better place).

All the odds and ends should be here before that. only thing left to “finish” is the code.

sjwaller said he would email me his port of Xan code so i can see what messed up on mine.

What to do in the mean time?

Tomorrow i will do a complete tear down and photo shoot of the build process. how is that?

Got my gait sequencer done. Tested with only one leg watching the serial output for the rest. but it works.

youtube.com/watch?v=mDfxgUSYaF0

legs should be here any day now after that it will be walking around.

Is it powered directly from SSC-32 or is it already hooked with arduino? Your progress is off the chart. :wink:

the arduino is sending the info to the SSC-32.

Scorpion Style gait appears to be working, but till the legs get here it just flops on the desk.

adding new gaits is now easy as pie for me. but i am going to define 3-4 max and the rest of the code space will be for AI.

couple of pics from today so far:

zhanx.net/incoming/ELF/DSC_3751.JPG

zhanx.net/incoming/ELF/DSC_3757.JPG

zhanx.net/incoming/ELF/DSC_3769.JPG

zhanx.net/incoming/ELF/DSC_3780.JPG

zhanx.net/incoming/ELF/DSC_3781.JPG

i got the rest of the wire loom in so i am cleaning up all the wiring and making it look nice. A bit more work and it will be done

i finally found these today. search.digikey.com/scripts/DkSearch/dksus.dll?WT.z_header=search_go&lang=en&site=us&keywords=WM1837-ND&x=0&y=0 so now i can get them on order. After i get them in no more excess wire.

Got the legs in the mail. But i pulled a 20 hour day. So no pics yet… hopefully tomorrow.

tired sleep now.

umm yea still no time off yet… but i am looking at modifying Xan’s code for stair climbing after i get it walking.

Also eye stalks for a pair of camera might be in order soon.

What? You slept for 4 hours?

Stair climbing should be an interesting challenge! You must have a considerable reach with your legs! I wouldn’t mind hearing more about that aspect of the project.

Alan KM6VV

Center of the servo to the floor on the femur 6.29" (160 mm) 4" (100 mm) eye to eye on the tibia’s. So i go just a bit of range of motion on it.

Before i get camera’s i will need to upgrade the brain on it. I am hashing out the base of what i want to do since i am on a lull at work again.

and actually i slept closer to 2 for a couple of days

OK, two hours is not bad!

I would think you’d need to consider the range of motion, can you get a leg up and onto an 8" (?) step? It would be really impressive to see a hexapod climb stairs!

I have one robot that’s spent the last 20 years “upstairs” as it can’t climb stairs.

What camera(s) are you intending to use?

Alan KM6VV

Range of motion? After i redo these tibia’s yet again (wish i practiced the measure twice cut once) I will be doing the wow i can flip itsself over routine to show off the range of motion for it. With manual posing stairs don’t appear to be an issue. I am still a long ways from the stair climbing right now. But its one of my plans for it. still kicking around the eye stalks etc. after i get the base sensor array controlling it i will be moving on to this. and the OV9653 camera is what i am thinking of going with. But everything for the brain upgrade needs to be planned together.

I plan to push the limits of control with this bot before moving on to the next one.

Not sure how this is going to fly but:

I decided to try something “new” instead of programming my octopod to walk. Why don’t i program it to learn to walk?

Nifty concept?

It’s been done.

imagination-engines.com/robot_brains.htm

Not saying you shouldn’t try it though…

Good that means i can do it! well at least attempt it.

I figured i wasn’t the first thats why i had the quotes.

Hashed out a lot of ideas today. Tomorrow i am going to start the frame works for the code base.

Several researchers have developed “evolution” programs that can over a period of time derive gaits based on reinforcement algorithms. These are all simulated motion (to my knowledge) until the “winner” emerges. Trying on actual hardware with our somewhat delicate R/C servos could be a dangerous (and expensive) way to learn!

But yeah, go for it! And post your results!

Alan KM6VV
P.S. Flying will take a little more time…

Well it Flew by mistake. so new legs are on way to replace those that broke :slight_smile: but the good news is. After burying my nose in some books I am no closer on the AI than when i started. Two thumbs up on that!.

zhanx.net/incoming/ELF/DSC_4207.JPG
zhanx.net/incoming/ELF/DSC_4208.JPG

but i mounted all the sensors etc… Those are pics of it. The new leg part to get it back up and running should be here before the first and i will post a video of it walking then get back to the AI. Also got a new brain on the way with a pair of OV9653’s for the stereo vision.

Too bad! well. should be easy to fix!

Yeah, they’ve been working on AI for 40 some years, and don’t have much to show for it. On the other hand, you can certainly make it autonomous!

Alan KM6VV

just found out the weirdest thing. The black plastic on the sharp ir sensor is conductive. Ground it out helped stabilize my readings a bit. weird…

That’s interesting. Shielding would certainly help! I’ll have to remember that. My sensors have been mounted on metal, so that probably helped.

Alan KM6VV