Dragoon: Custom RX-64 Quadruped

Hey guys,

Figured I'd share some of my more recent work; Dragoon. This is an RX-64 based quadruped robot using an ArbotiX Robocontroller and the new & upcoming RX-Bridge, which allows the ArbotiX to control higher end DX/RX/EX series Dynamixels. One of the cool things about the ArbotiX is that it is Arduino software compatible, so it uses the same Arduino IDE with some added libraries, VERY easy to use.

Walking gait is still needing tweaking, I'd guess I can nearly double the speed in the above video once tuned in. It's using an open source program called PyPose and NUKE (Nearly Universal Kinematics Engine) to implement 3 DOF Inverse Kinematics for the walking gaits. It's an easy to use GUI that allows you to punch in parameters about your 3dof Quadruped or Hexapod robot, walk through a calibration guide, and it will export a ready to go Arduino Sketch for you to use with the ArbotiX. Very powerful system and easy to get up and running. Building the robot itself took about 10 hours including CNC time, and literally the software took no more than an hour or so.  All of this software and the ArbotiX itself was created by Vanadium Labs.

The robot is built out of 12 RX-64 Dynamixels and a custom frame built from 2mm 5052 Aluminum, over a weekend. I'm powering it with a 4S 1900mAh LiPo pack. Control is via a handheld gamepad style Arduino-compatible controller over an Xbee wireless connection. Oh, and those are not 'usable' wheels on the end of the feet, they dont spin and are just used to create a convenient rubber contact point at the end of the tibias. Laid out it's about 90cm across, when standing it's about 60cm wide, and weighs in at 3kg.

 Given that I have a bunch of available I/O, I might also experiment with autonomous navigation for this quad. 

 Anyway, that's all for now. I'll keep updating this as I make progress.