Servo driven robot leg able to kick or throw a ball

Let's Make Robots Project Ideas
1

Hi,
I’ve designed a servo-driven arm with a special mechanic, which is able to throw a tennisball or heavier stuff 50-100cm wide. For now it’s only a proof of concept, there’s plenty of room for improvements.
It has enough grunt to kick a ball too. Maybe useful for soccer-bots or in robot fighting?

I’ll build a hexapod around it and hope it can jump really high/wide, but then what…?
Do you have any ideas, what else to do with it? Playing robot-darts?
Would there be enough interest in such a mechanic to invest money?

Thanks for reading, please feel free to comment
o_lampe

2

If it can do as you indicate, potentially have the robot able to run / sprint / jump (not only walk)?
That’s the next step for RoboCup and almost all legged robots in general.

3

I’m sure it wont be able to run faster, because the speed of the servos stays the same. A biped will probably loose balance when it kicks a ball to hard. We will see.
But wherever a series of punch/kick/jump is helpful, we will have a big advantage.

4

I made an improved servo arm and released a short video. It’s still a proof of concept, so bare with me :slight_smile:
robot leg kicks, jumps and throws balls

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5

It will be interesting to see that idea transferred to a bipedal robot, or see how high / far it can throw an object. The general principle is sound, of extending a spring to create the force needed (and using a servo to do so). The part which I don’t recall ever seeing is how you chose to release the tension in the spring repeatedly, since an RC servo alone would either move too slowly or be damaged.

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6

DAMN, I knew I should’ve filed a patent :wink:

There’s already a ‘hand’ attached to hold a ball. Will make a video throwing some baskets tomorrow…

//edit
I couldn’t wait to see it throwing, so here’s the first video:

The last time it throws the ball, I held down the vice, because it kicked back before. A biped will have problems to keep steady…

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7

Suggest experimenting with the configuration of the spring and 4-bar: you can likely get better motion / greater distance if the ball holder is connected to one of the “side” bars.
Does the idea already exist? Not a clue.

8

Sure there’s room for improvements, but it was build to replace the femur/tibia part of a hexapod leg.
I’ll put more brains into adapting this concept into the hexapod. I searched your shop for adequate servo brackets, but couldn’t find one.
3D-printing the brackets will be difficult, they will eventually brake apart from the ‘brutal’ force.
I have to source the right raw material and make my own brackets and legs.