I think I’m pretty much done with this project for now!
I’ve done additional mechanical improvements to the upper sphere sections. The rolling code is working but not perfect. At this point I need a lot of practice, to make it roll is pretty hard to control. One thing I’ve noticed is that it doesn’t roll very good on hard wood floor, to little traction between the floor and the PC. It work much better on a carpet though. The roll mode really pushes the limits on everything, especially the servos. After a 5-10 minutes of play the servos get hot but not overheated.
Meanwhile I’ve been thinking about so many other robot projects; another morphing/transforming robot, several different hexapods, humanoid, robotis project, learn more about Arduino and PIC32. Sigh… if I just had the time… One thing is for sure, you never get tired of this hobby!
When I get time for it I’ll take some new pictures and make a MorpHex part III video.
It looks like I’m wrong about this. After some training, the rolling part perform much better than I thought on hard wood floor too! My wife helped me to shoot a video of MorpHex rolling in our livingroom. I’ll use some part of this in the next video. I also want to do some outdoor testing and if it perform ok I’ll include that in the video too.
But it look likes I need to do some additional mechanical improvements again… Some glued PC sections seem to get loose, I’ve to use a combination of nylon screw and gluing. I’ll post photos later.
I’ve just made a new video of MorpHex for demonstrating the rolling feature. One thing you may notice is that MorpHex rolls more or less in a curved direction instead of a straight forward direction. This is caused by the asymmetric design; the upper sphere section vs. the lower section. I’m about to get my hands on some more of those high torque servos and I’m thinking of making MorpHex more symmetrical again. Actually, that was my original plan:
I’ve found a way around the wiring issue but I might want to go for a totally different leg design too. At this moment I’m not sure.
Anyway, here is the new video:
I hope you enjoyed it! I’m also using this video to promote my April contest entry at the Boca Bearings 2012 Innovation Competition. The video with the most votes will be announced winner at the beginning of the following month. Out of all monthly winners the jury of Boca Bearings will select a grant prize winner who will receive $10000 in cash. The two follow up winners will receive their own Makerbot 3D printer.
To be the monthly winner I need your vote.
If you want to see more advanced robots coming out of my hands leave your vote here. Every vote is highly appreciated! Thanks
One thing is for sure, you never get tired of this hobby! 
It looks like I’m wrong about this. After some training, the rolling part perform much better than I thought on hard wood floor too! My wife helped me to shoot a video of MorpHex rolling in our livingroom. I’ll use some part of this in the next video. I also want to do some outdoor testing and if it perform ok I’ll include that in the video too.
