Hello everyone,
I am a beginner After fiddling with the arduinos for some time, I have decided that I need a bigger challenge. I would like to build my own hexapod robot, and I need your help.
I have searched for a begginer hexapod robotics kit and these seem like the most attractive ones:
http://www.robugtix.com/iitsii/ - a small hexapod, seems cool. Maybe little too expensive
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/stemi-a-robot-you-can-make-on-your-own-at-home/x/12560185#/ - I ran into this few days ago and it seems perfect for what I want and it's relatively cheap. Only downside is that I have to wait for the shipping date since its on indiegogo. Any thoughts on this kit?
http://arcbotics.com/products/hexy/ - This one is also interesting, but the walking algorithm is not as nice as the 2 kits mentioned above
Does anybody have experience with these kits? Or maybe can recommend something else?
- Logan
Great kits!
Hi Logan
Hexapods are great robots.
A personal favourite of mine is called Stubby - it is a full 18DOF hexapod as those you have linked to, however it is really, really cheap 
It uses components all easily obtainable for next-to-nothing on Ebay and other site, and is well docmuented on their site.
Pushrods and Wood
I had not seen this, it walks rather fast and well.
I note that it is cut up out of wood on a scrollsaw and uses pushrods. That is only the second robot I’ve seen to do that. The first being the cat quadruped I have been working on.
Aside from not needing a 3D printer (and I hold no objection to them beyond the price), wood (white pine or cypress) is considerably lighter that either ABS plastic (~ 1/3) or aluminum (~1/7) (as a whole piece without negative spaces) and has great resilience and breaking strength. It’s also incredibly cheap, not to mention that it is easily paintable.
Hexapods in particular have very limited travel angles so the pushrod leverage can be considerable (note that there is a 1 - sine(offset angle) loss). For this I would guess that to be about 20% while the overall force advantage is probably 400 to 500%. My quad is much much more modest as the travel distances are greater, I had to use the $6 servos.
This gets my vote, although you can see I have a prejudice in that direction!
Ooooh!
I absolutely love Stubby; it is the first robot I’d seen using the pushrod technique. The fact that the chassis and parts could be built without access to 3D printers and laser cutters and suchlike was the main selling point to me; more accessible for me and also, combined with the cheapness of parts, there’s a potential I may actually be able to afford to do it
I would love to see your quad - is it on here buddy?
Rowl
Not at this point.
I am about at the half way point. I have it assembled enough that it has been out to a couple of Halloween partys. I have not yet installed the Raspberry Pi 2 brain as I have been having trouble getting the SPI display to work and have not worked through the speech part yet.
Where it is now is with a fake head. This has a spine instead of a frame and the mechanics and sensors are driven by an Arduino DUE clone. It will sit and stand and take a few steps, I have an unusual way of controlling center of gravity and have some refinements to work out as that is freshly tried out.
Rowl is sliced out of a foot or so of white pine 2x4 into 1/2" slices, those slices are then cut up on a borrowed scroll saw (#2 skip tooth blade I believe) the pushrods are a combination of slices of cypress and the kind of swivel joints RC people use. It’s wildly painted and much to my chagrin brightly lights up under “black” light. All done as cheaply as possible. Rowl is somewhat larger than a housecat and is of same proportions.
I have a varied background and am throwing in the towel when I hit 64 at the end of this month. I have a EE degree (first class FCC and amateur radio advanced), owned part of a live music club and built and ran sound. Spent a number of years repairing non commercial sound (this was in the turntable, reel to reel and cassette days) and then was a free lance web developer (started in '95) until recently. Along the way have sold some unusual photographs. So I know a few thing about discrete electronics, mechanics, wood working, sound and software and imaging. All of which, IMHO, makes me well suited to such a ridiculous task as this Catbot. Since it is such an absurd creation, I will wait until it is closer to completion before it shows up on the web in other than the FB posts other people have put up.
Oh man!
I’m really, REALLY intrigued to see your project now ha ha. Even in it’s current state of development there are a lot of budding enthusiasts who wouldn’t be able to even get that far with it (me included!)
I would love to have such a varied skillset; I can bodge my way around my band’s PA roblems and can plan plan a good project but my skills in fabrication let me down severely. I am hoping to put that right though
Curses, Facebook Privacy settings!
Oh I cant see it! So close yet so far, ha ha!
