1/10 Scale Mantis Hexapod

Having spent the past weeks sat in front of computer screens designing and researching, I decided we need o build something, so as soon as the dynamixel servos turned up... we set to building the 1/10 scale Mantis:


Test assembly with RB-100 Lniux PC mounted

Josh assembles some of the legs..

An upside down hexapod, these long legs are difficult to handle.. I hate o think what the full size on will be like!

Simulation Running

After a great deal of head scratching I have finally built my basic looking hexapod within Webbots. I found an example that uses a TCP socket, so I have added a TCP socket within the HexEngine which will stream the leg position angles to the simulation, this way I don't need to port the entire Engine over to webbots, just send leg angles.

Next I need to add the mounting points for all the cylinders so that I can calculate the extension of the rams during a walk cycle, from this I can calculated the flow rate of each leg and the overall machine.

I plan on purchasing a copy of webbots once this trial has run out, however, I'm not sure If I can use the basic version or not.. unfortunately I built my robot as a supervisor which requires the expert version, but I think my simulation will work as a simple robot... need to figure this out as there is a BIG difference in the license cost.

Hexapod Simulation

I need to run a simulation of the complete hexapod with hydraulic cylinders in place, this is so I can calculate approximate flow rates so we know what size engine / valves / pump we are going to need.

After a few google searches and a chat with a friend, I have decided to use Webbots. It looks pretty daunting right now, but I'm going to start by trying some of the tutorials and go from there.