There are so many choices of hexapod kits from Lynxmotion it is difficult to zero in on one. Is there a best one in terms of performance? I don’t care so much about size or payload as I do movement versatility. I will want to run them autonomously. This will not be my first Lynxmotion robot. I have initially been looking at all aluminum body/legs with HS-645s. Are the foot sensors important. Are they exploited in the servo controller code? I am even open to other makers, but I need any guidance I can get on selecting the best performing hexapod available. Thanks much for your help.
You are correct. There is a wide variety of hexapod kits to choose from. And sure this can make it hard to choose the right one.
The AH3r hex is a very strong robot. Maybe even the more robust model of the lot.
The round body models AH, BH, CH are a great platform for adding sensors due to the symmetrical shape and unused space. Also are the inline body models…
But if it’s versatility your after then my personally choice would be the T-Hex 4of hexapod.
Personally I think it’s stunning to watch. I have even had a chance to play with a 4of platform so I know it’s a cool one to play with.
To second the T-Hex range would be the Phoenix model.
Foot sensors for TA, Terrain Adaption have been supplied with some of the kits but unfortunately no code integration has been applied as it is still a work in progress.
I will 2nd what innerbreed said. It is difficult to choose.
I have some xHR platforms(lynxmotion.com/c-92-ah3-r.aspx), and they have been the ones that I most use when I am experimenting with electronics and the like. They are great in that they can move more or less equally well in any direction, however I don’t think their movement is as fluid as some of the others when moving straight forward or backward.
My favorite for motion is the Phoenix(lynxmotion.com/c-117-phoenix.aspx). It’s movements are very fluid, especially in the hands of someone like the creator of it.
I also like the T-Hex(lynxmotion.com/c-151-t-hex-4-dof.aspx). It is a also a great setup that allows you to experiment with several different configurations and the location on where you place the circuit boards makes it easy to experiment with. Mine came with foot sensors, that I am not sure if you can still get or not. The funny thing is that I feel more like I am controlling a storm troopers ground assault vehicle than an insect, even if they are doing the same thing. This is especially true if you have it moving with 4 degrees of freedom. Again a great Hex.
Currently I am experimenting with the FireAnt that is currently in the process of being released by Orion Robotics (Basic Micro). orionrobotics.com/FireAnt-He … p_248.html. This is a fun robot, and has some great features like their own servos which provide position and force feedback. I will write more about these soon.
So again which is best? Depends on what you want. My answer changes daily. Not sure what you mean by performance. If you are saying you want the one that moves the fastest, that may be the PhantomX. If you want the one that moves the smoothest and looks the coolest I would probably say Phoenix. If you say you want one that can adapt and maybe do some decent Terrain Adaptation, I am not sure: Maybe T-Hex with sensors, Likewise with the AHR or the like. But maybe one of the Orion Robotics ones like the Fire Ant that has Servo feedback, or maybe PhantomX that also has feedback. Again really hard to answer.
Yes they (Dale and Nathan of BasicMicro) have been doing some fun stuff. I have not played with a Blade yet, but have had the Ant kit for about a month and been playing along with them and giving them my 2 cents on feedback on the construction manual, code… They are doing a great job on the manuals. They are doing them in the style of what I refer to as like IKea furniture type of instructions.
Again I will write more about it very soon. I will probably first put it up on their new forum.
Thanks for your replies. Is there also a consideration of differences in software support? Do some of your suggested hexapods allow better control of gait and maneuvering?
In particular, Kurt, what electronics and software does the Orion FireAnt come with. I looked through the manual but didn’t see any specifics or mention of microcontroller or servo controller, although the web page specifies use of Arduino.
As for software support? Lets just say that for all of the Lynxmotion ones, I have the same software running on them for either Basic Atom Pro 28s with SSC-32, or with an Arc32. Likewise I have Arduino versions for most/all of them. I have not tested the configuration files for the actual Phoenix as mine has an Arc32 in it. The PhantomX originally had it’s own software, which was good for moving very fast, but I thought it did not move very smoothly, so I adapted our Arduino code base to run on it as well. I try to keep my github account (github\kurte) up to date with my current stuff.
Now as for the FIre Ant, It comes with an Arduino board made by them (DaVinci) which as an Atmega328 based board, you use the same Arduino settings as you would for the BotBoarduino. They then use one of their own shields (Orion), which uses the same 32 bit Renasis H8 chip as they use in their Arc32 board. It is more or less a 24 pin version of an Arc32. You can reprogram both the Davinci and the Orion using the USB on the DaVinci. The standard software on both of these use a high speed SPI interface between the two processors… The Ant ships with their new PS2 controller(this may be an option), which since their receiver works differently than others as they put a small processor in it communicates serially at 38400 and only requires one IO pin. Initially the Orion shield will probably be the only platform that fully supports their servos. The SSC-32 can probably drive the servos, but will not be able to support any feedback as the servo pins on the SSC-32 are output only.
I should mention with more or less any of Lynxmotion robots, you are free to use almost any hardware you can think of. For example using an SSC-32 to control the servos, I have had several different main processor boards, including ones that have Propeller processors, Pic32 (Chipkit), Arduino Megas. With some of these set ups, I have also used the main processor to drive the servos without the need for the SSC-32.
What a great resource you’ve put out there! I just skimmed through github/kurte and found, for example, Arduino_Phoenix_Parts that looks so helpful. I am becoming intrigued by the potential of the feedback provided by the Orion servos, though. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find any descrition of software on their site.
Thanks, I have had fun migrating everything over to Arduinos.
Yes there is not much information up there yet about the Orion and DaVinci. If you look up at a thread on the Basic Micro forums (forums.basicmicro.net/news-f481/ … t9902.html), you will see that Nathan is trying to get something up there in the next few days. I will write more about it once he has done that. One of the nice things about having servo feedback is the way you do the initial servo offsets. You simply lay the robot down with the servos pointing in the right directions and then hit a button (or buttons) on the PS2 remote and the code reads where each of the servos are and builds it’s offset table. Later on it may lead to some more advanced things like, detecting how much force is on each leg and doing some adjustments to the servos to get the expected values…
I expect that the software will evolve to add other capabilities as well, like being able to detect when the feet land on something, or the ability to capture poses of the robot and building sequences in much the same way you can do with robots built with Robotis servos, or the old Hitec Robonova.
