MY CH3-R "Ikariya": first Autonomous steps

Lynxmotion Legged Robots
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At 23:10 (11:10 PM) EST on July 14, 2008 (about an hour and a half ago), my CH3-R hexapod “Ikariya” took his very first steps as an autonomous robot. After a lot of time, I modified the Powerpod program to work with the Atom Pro (with the help of the various posts on these forums), writing logic and sensor programs, and getting all these programs into one working program.
There’s still much to do. The coding needs major cleanup. Adjust the distance from the sonar before he turns away. Add a menu system. Write coding for the battery-monitor on the bot-board. But he’s like any hobby robot. He’ll never be “finished.” There’s always something new to code or some modification to make. He’ll grow over time.
I’ll post more information about Ikariya in the future, and I’ll try to clean up the code some and upload it.
I’d like to thank the many people on this forum. I’ve learned a lot from the many posts.
Special thanks to A-Bot for posting working PING code in the W.A.L.T.E.R. topic, and kurte for the code for using SEROUT to send data to the PC terminal (works better than Atom Pro Debug for me) in Basic Atom Pro code for Ping))) topic.
Of course, very special thanks to Laurent Gay for writing the program that gave Ikariya his mobility to begin with, and Jim Frye and his family at Lynxmotion for the perfect (and one of the coolest looking) robot platform to build upon. Without you guys, I’d probably still be controlling DC motors via QBasic on my PC to make a crude robot. :wink:

Oh, and the Youtube video of Ikariya’s first steps is youtube.com/watch?v=7qcR0NUptM4 . All my testing was done by holding him with one hand and testing his reactions, so this truly was the first time he’s walked and avoided a wall without using a PS2 controller.

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Very impressive! Keep up the good work!

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Beautiful work and very impressive. Keep up the good work and keep us posted on your progress.

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Awesome work. Kudos.

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hi! my name is Peter and i have bought a Ch3-r hex from lynxmotion last year! i found a threat from you here in the forum from your robot “Ikariya” and it looks so great!!
now i would like to make Mean Grean (the name of my robot) autonomous! but i dont know hwo must i begin with!!
must i bought a new basic atom Pro or is my “normal” basic atom also good for it? or ist it too small??
what for sensors must i buy?
and the biggest question is:who must i beginn to programm? could i use the ground movement from the powerpod programm? or must i write a own movement? who must i implant the sensors in the prog.?
i know there are a lot of questions from me to you but i hope you could help me!??
friendly Peter

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Hi Peter,

You can probably do a bit more with your Atom, but you would be do more with the Pro. It probably all depends on what all you want to do.

I believe that Powerpod can generate the basics of the autonomous code, that takes care of most of the hard stuff like doing the actual movement. What you have to provide is code that emulates the inputs the PS2 might create. Like there is a bit in a variable that cooresponds to doing the Attack move. More importantly there are variables that you set to set the X speed and Z speed and height and the program then translates this into the actual movements…

As for what sensors to buy, that is a very large topic and it depends on what you wish to do. You might start off with a few of the Sharp IR sensors lynxmotion.com/Product.aspx?productID=260&CategoryID=8 or maybe some ping sensors lynxmotion.com/Product.aspx?productID=492&CategoryID=8 and then write code that walks some direction until one or more sensors detects something, turn or change directions and try again…

You could try to add ground force sensors to have your feet try to detect when they are on something, etc.

There are lots of possiblities here, but I would suggest starting simple.

I hope this helps.
Kurt

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Thanx for you tips!! i buy´d yesterday from my robot dealer (nodna.com) in germany an ir sensor (IRPD-01) an Ultrasonic sensor (SRF04) and an Atom pro! :slight_smile:
hope that my programming works good!!! the are my first steps…

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Sounds great, let us all know your progress.

Kurt

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Yes, of course i will let you know of my progress! :slight_smile: for a few minutes i become the email from nodna-the packet is on the way to me! :slight_smile:
hope you helped me by my “beginner” problems!?
Here is a picture from my “Mean Green”!
bilder-hochladen.net/files/thumbs/9r64-1.jpg

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I like the looks of those servo links. Where did you get those? did you make them?

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did you mean the Alu-plate between the knee and hips?i made them on my cnc-maschine at work! they are better against torosion and they are 10 grams lighter each leg then the originals! :slight_smile: the material is a high-strength aluminium with 580n/cm²! it was lieing around! next project is carbon… :slight_smile:
here a detail picture:
bilder-hochladen.net/files/thumbs/9r64-2.jpg

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Mirage, that’s a beautiful bracket you got there… I’m wondering if I should attempt to drill a few holes in my bracket to lighten it up slightly.

Anyone tried this? Drilling some holes in their SES to lighten it up?

I think the femur of my Phoenix could probably use a few holes without compromising the strength…

Jim, I know in your Phoenix prototype, the femur had holes in them right?

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I made no holes in the femur. The tibia had a few holes in them, but I changed it to an elongated curvy shape. Before you start drilling brackets it might be a good idea to quantify the weight savings you are likely to achieve. The two brackets combined weigh in at 0.80 ounces. For 6 of them the weight soars to 4.80 ounces. Making the bracket look like swiss cheese might gain a 15-20% reduction. So in a best case scenario you could gain almost a full ounce! Not worth it in my opinion. :unamused: