@dialfonzo - My guess is I will be able to figure it out, but having drawings like the above will make it simpler!
And it looks good enough the way you have it for a good starting point.
One interesting thing about that thread was he did an adapter board to mount an ESP8266 in an XBee holder. Not sure if that is the direction I would go or to go back to RC or go to something like RF24s or LRA…
I actually cheated by making one leg assembly and duplicated it 6 times in the final assembly. In reality I would have one side mirror the other so all output shaft facing the same side.
FYI to all those waiting for the hexapod prototype hardware - the body panels are in production and we’ll ship them as soon as we have all parts at our warehouse in Canada. Sorry again for the delay.
I definitely want a surrogate! I am starting to get shack wacky.
(I’m a home body, I can’t imagine how my wife or other extroverts feel. Also, I want my surrogate to look like Bruce Willis too)
I’ve been working diligently on Robot IK and Dynamics within ROS2. Firstly, it’s been a really tough road the last 2 months getting this dog-crap (i.e. my code) working only to discover my URDF file I exported from SolidWorks way back in December had the joint coordinate systems completely randomized…XYZ unit vectors were all over the place. No wonder when I entered coordinates or orientations for end-effectors they would be all twisted and wrong. lol. I had to go back and redo the URDF but now all is right in the (cartesian) world.
So I heavily refactored my code into something clean and friendlier. I now have stuff separated into State objects and the physics-of-motion models, and visual renders that act on states. Now current state and target state are just 2 sides of the same coin and I can render states as ghost-mesh models with indicators within RViz2. RViz is actually quite flexible. I’ve figured out how to add manipulators for end-effectors or what-not and context menus. In the video I have one to control the robot standing height. My node is also doing proper gravity compensation on the compliant joints and predicting torque current draw very accurately. Robot Dynamics node can handle any number of legs so looking forward to trying out on the Hexapod as well.
Robot is still shaky since I have no PID or trajectory smoothing, so that is my next task.
Good to hear about the hexapod. I am coding to support both biped and hex (or quad) and my latest refactor got rid of the last 2-leg specific code, so I look forward to testing on the hex too.
@kurte@xan@zenta Greatly apologize for the delay in sending the hardware, but you should have each received a confirmation for a RobotShop order for the parts. Keep us posted when you receive the packages! As discussed, it’s up to each of you to include whatever MCU or SBC you’re most comfortable starting with (and wiring it), as well as the battery (XT60 connector is best). Arduino and/or ROS (running on a Pi) are best.
It will likely be a few days after I receive the package before I will feel safe to do much with it. Yes I know maybe a bit paranoid, but I prefer to be safe than sorry.
Side note: The new Teensy 4.1 is officially starting a quick beta… There is a thread over on PJRC forum talking about it.
New video posted with new Trajectory Planning working! This worked out awesome! Also demoing calculation of convex hull and support polygons for limb/feet contacts. Next up…make those trajectories multi-point and add end-effector manipulators to RViz for creating the planning steps.
Is there a reason for why the body panels are missing in the package?
I can make my own, but I thought it was meant we should all share the same hardware at first.
