This is my first attempt on designing and constructing a robot. The whole thing started with a request from my 12 year old nephew. He wanted to learn how to program a robot. I had a look around and found this amazing site and mailed him an example of a robitc arm or a hexapod, so he could choose whice he thourght was the most fun. He picked the Hexapod.
One friday evening, I went into the project of constructing the Hexapod. After looking at some of the other designs around "Lets make robots", I put the pen to the paper or the mouse to the screen. After a couple of hours of drawing I had the hexapod ready in 3D.
Early saturday, I started out converting the 3D components into 2D cutting plans.
By lunch I was able to print 2 sheets of paper with the cutting layout. 2-3 hours of cutting and the Hexapod was ready for assembly. The final piece went in Sunday evening.
In order to test the setup, I added an RC reciver to see if the hexapod was working. I went quite well. Next phase will be to add a seriel servo controller and build a C# class with some basic functions, in order for my nephew to get an easy start on the C# programming.
Okay, because I found this a pretty easy build, I have created PDF files for the cutting of plywood and instructions on how to put it together.
Find the instructions by following the link to more information at the top.
Are you sure this is your first robot? Because it looks great!
I love the way you managed to implement the 3 servo hexapod. It looks so much cleaner than say Rosalinda or Stomper. And those are some pretty cool robots themselves.
On the other hand you’re going to use it to teach C#… for me, that is the dark side of the force
EDIT I have browsed through your Vimeo videos and the build quality makes more sense now…
I build RC-planes as another hobby, so that might explain a little.
Regarding the C# vs. C or Assembler, I can’t afford to buy my nephew an AVR programmer, which is the processor type I normally work in, for doing the plane light systems and other RC-plane related stuff.
I’m not sure what you are using to control the robot now (is it radio controlled?) but you could easily strap an Arduino on it’s back and then start programming it in C within minutes (including IDE download time).
Yes, the test setup is pure RC. The seriel servo controller will get implemented next weekend.
I’m to much a keep it cheap and DIY kind of guy, so I intend to build my own board. But you are right, it might be a solution for my nephew unless he also wana learn the trades of the soldering iron and digital electronics.
I have had good luck with them. They have exceptional documentation and are Arduino clones, which allows you to use some great libraries out there. Also its a compact and complete little kit, so your nephew can still learn to weld the iron and some details of digital electronics. Also for 17 bucks its a pretty good deal.
