This is a work in progress. My daughter (robotics major at Olin College outside of Boston, MA) and I have been working on this for about a year now. Here's a list of features and status of the project:
- Raspberry Pi 3 based
- limb and body measurements were modeled around domestic cats
- 8 servos control the legs
- 1-2 servos drive the tail
- 2 servos drive the pan and tilt head mounted camera
- 1 servo drives the waist linkage
The most recent version (13) has belt driven leg joints with rotation tracking integrated into the joints. The vision is to allow this robot to be controlled with a cell phone either held in your hand or mounted into a VR headset which in turn will allow you to see the world from the cat's perspective. This will be extended with an AR (augmented reality) system that will have virtual mice running from the cat (for example).
Current functionality (i.e. we've tested, redesigned, retested, (repeat)) includes standing, sitting, stretching, laying down, and of course - ignoring its master's commands). Once complete we are looking to sell this robot commercially for around $300. It will be the first of a number of bio-inspired robots (i.e. movements, measurements based upon the real animal rather than wheeled). We're also hoping to establish / enable an open source software community to enhance what this beast can do. We have an engineering blog at SpaceSpeak.com. I'll be adding status updates here too.
