Caterpillar robot

This is my first locomotive robot I will be building. I so far have most of the body done, as of now it has 2 hobby servos but will have three when finished. 

As I said this is my first locomotive robot so i will be needing help with the coding. if you do wish to help, i would like the movement to be similar to a wave and as smooth as possible, and dont worry about the third servo just yet, if you are wishing to help just concentrate on the two already. thanks in advance. this will obviously be updated when needed and full recognition will be given to anyone who helps. I will post my code once i think it is done and you can do with it what you will, but bear in mind (as you will soon find out) my coding is very longwinded so if when reading through it you have any sugestions on making i shorter dont hesitate to contact me.

Update 1: 11/7/11

As you can see in the video, I have the worm moving(ish). The code to this is here: http://db.tt/keL445D. The next step is to add in the third servo and get the movement a little smoother.

Update 2: 11/7/11 (8:30pm)

I have added in the third servo motor of which can now be seen in the main picture. Now all thats left to do is code it all :)

Update 3: 12/7/11

It is finished. The speed was the smoothing problem and by most standards it is still a bit basic but i have lots of ideas for non-standard robots so sue me. New link to the final code is here http://db.tt/YlTODQJ. New video is up. see you lot soon :) 

crawl along the floor

  • Actuators / output devices: 3 acoms servos
  • Control method: non-autonomous
  • CPU: Arduino Duemilanove
  • Power source: USB power for Arduino, 5V through USB
  • Programming language: C
  • Target environment: indoor

This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://community.robotshop.com/robots/show/caterpillar-robot

Nice first mobile bot

Most people go for treads or wheels. You went with an '80 dance move. Outstanding.

haha
thanks lol :smiley: the reason behind my decision is because I know how to use servos but I don’t want to mod them in case I break them plus I wanted to do something original. I thought about a bug style, then I thought snake and then I thought a wave/worm movement. p.s. new video going up tomorrow of it mostly working lol

Very cool beginnings. Fun to

Very cool beginnings. Fun to watch this unusual robot.

thanks

thanks. i have a few more ideas that i want to try out but it has meant that i have had to dismantle caterpillar bot :frowning: if you hae any ideas send em my way coz im running out of things that i can actually do, i do want to stay away from wheels/tracks as much as posssible just to see how many i can do :slight_smile:

Well, there are plenty of

Well, there are plenty of walking robots on this site and elsewhere you can check for inspiration. There are even some other caterpillar/worm/snake robots to see. 

idea

well i have just had the idea of making a big flexible wheel. three servos+six pannels+three hinges=controllable flexable wheel. thanks mate i gota get to work :smiley: