UA RNSL Intel Hexapod: 3D Balance Gestures

[Tannerthomas]

ROBOTSSSS RULLLEEE!!!

[threepackbigmack]

i have 0% of knowledge about building robots but this is my goal, my dream, and my future to build robots and major in robotics and become a robotic engineer. Where should I start?

[tdurk93v2]

@threepackbigmack How old are you? I am only in high school but I am on a robotics team (search YouTube and google for Walton Robotics) and might be able to at least point in the right direction.

[Nomoreidsleft]

Wow, that's probably a very expensive piece of equipment. Check out what Odbot has achieve with some chopsticks and plastic:

watch?v=7hG6Amnb9Mo

No, expensive 3D printer, no expensive 3D modeling software, no expensive servos, and he managed an extra 2 more limbs for eye stalks. So, his is actually a Dexapod.

[bogdanbosss]

Great, now make it the size of a tank , put some armor and a cannon on it and you my friend are rich.

[Krikafan]

All it needs now is a torso-mounted turret ;)

[THEIRONMAN9]

ARGHHHH KILL THE DANCING SPIDER !!

[rtprohn]

lol its getting horny :P

[mark11original]

Thats excellent. I want to build a Hexapod, just wondering why do you need three different types of servos? (AX-12, RX-10, and RX-28 servos) I am a beginner at robots and I have only used servos with 3 wires (Hi Tech 645 servo), would these be good enough or should I get better ones?

[blegas78]

@mark11original You don't need three types of servos for any reason. I just like the Dynamixel motors because it is possible to read their state through the serial protocol. 

The 645 servos are great for hexapods

[ALBinternational]

lego ;)

[gnapotro]

La musique est magnifique.

Jolie machine, félicitation!

[checksummedchest]

Free Energy is real and its here but the coverup is strong, if u r interested in a REAL free energy magnet motor then

just go to LT-MAGNET-MOTORdotCOM and download the blueprints ,it is probably the ONLY working magnet

motor out there. Join the free energy revolution!!

[shuwukong]

this is amazing

[DriveRangePro]

FYI You can program the FIT PC (and a hexapod) using FlowStone DSP graphical programming language from DSP Robotics. It's a free download!

[schmeckendeugler]

How much do they cost?

[anatolesokol]

It's dam slow!!!!!!!!

[Mecha04]

LOL I am listening to Offspring and starting at 0:54 it looks like it is dancing

[blegas78]

@Gniddelrulez The hexapod has it's own computer, and all I use is an SSH client to start things up on the hexapod. I have an SSH client on the iPhone, called TouchTerm. I use my Macbook usually though, using terminal with the "ssh" command. The iPhone and the Macbook do not do any control though, all they do is start up the hexapod software I created.

[MrTAlanReed]

all i want to know is: when is this going to beable to jump and run? great robot and the music for the video was perfect!

[aguirrea]

Thank you very much!

[aguirrea]

Great Job, Congratulations!

I'm trying to control an AX12 motor with a pic18f4550 and I have troubles to initialize the serial port at the baud rate the AX12 need, I will be pleased if you could post or send me a snippet of code with the serial initializing of the pic18f4550 to properly work with the ax12

best regards

Andrés

[blegas78]

@aguirrea Configuring the USART largely depends on the oscillator frequency. I have a 48MHz oscillator (FOSC), so to communicate at 1Mbps I set the baud rate register (spbrg to 2 ( solve this: FOSC / (16 * (spbrg + 1)) = baud rate). Other than this, make sure you have one stop bit, are sending only 8 bits, and are in high speed mode. Google MCC18 library and use those functions if you can. Good luck!

[lordK2323]

Hi, if you change the 48MHZ for a 20HMZ, can you still reach 1mbps?, becuase the SPBRG = 0.25 => [SPBRG] = 0

Im trying to control ax12 with 18f4550 usart as aguerrea

Regads.

Seba

[blegas78]

@lordK2323 Not all clock frequencies will work, but some may be close enough. I think +/- 5% error is considered ok. You can check this by plugging in the rounded number used for SPBRG back into to the formula to calculate the actual baud rate. You can then calculate the error by (actual - desired)/desired*100% = %error. I think that you might have too large of an error. I think that a 32MHz oscillator will match the dynamixel bus perfectly though, for all baudrates.

[joint2010]

ААаа сукааааа фильмы не врали!!!

[MrSwedenify]

creepy...

[redtwiggy]

This is amazing! I want to build such robot, but as a complete newbie I could find any information how to find a microcontroller that will output at least 18 PWM lines for the spider legs. Could help me and advice where to look for information how to build the controller 18 PWM lines?

Not mentioning a PS3 pad, but I think this is for later :) but I determined to build such a spider!

[blegas78]

The servos I used actually do not use PWM input for position control. These motors are controlled through a serial protocol, and each motor has a unique address. All I need to communicate to all of the motors is three lines.

You can use any microcontroller, but you may not be able to use all of the hardware peripheral PWM's, instead you will need to program software PWM lines by using timer interrupts. you may want to check out hexapodrobot . com

[lilicrashes]

@redtwiggy

I am new too! which books and where do I find parts to try to make something like this?

[SkarmoryThePG]

Dance, spider, dance!

Lovely work.

[legogamer999]

yeah i just saw this on AOL. I never thought it was possible, until now. Only one other idea to add. If it were to be made bigger and added a gun/weapon. Then it could be used in the US Army! Thats my plan: robots in war not humans!

[X3SB]

look up BIG DOG

[joeydestructo]

Congrats on your fantastic work and getting recognized by intel and crustcrawler! Makes me wish I was a genius too :(

Also the video is somehow very hypnotic btw lol

[Rawtrucker]

You are a star!. AOL has your story posted in their news. I am sure your video will go viral now. That is awesome. You don't really need any luck... with talent like yours success is in the near future.

[ixisuprflyixi]

amazing dexterity.

[Quincy111]

quick somebody grab a SPAS12!

[yottahz]

Nice video! What is the music from?

[blegas78]

Thanks!

The music is my own composition, first attempt at a flamenco-rock style. It won't please everyone though...

[yottahz]

@blegas78 It's very good! I'm thinking it would make good music to program to. Is it available for download elsewhere?

[fatandslat]

@blegas78

I really like the music!

But perhaps next time a tarantella might be in order, heh.

Great hexapod, btw, so very cool. Tachikoma alert!

[winflip]

@blegas78 I like your music too! I noticed your myspace as 12 cent dwarf, are there any other places where i can listen to your music, or even download it?

[blegas78]

Wow, I'm glad people like it!

If you want to send me a private message, I hook you all up :)

[Virginityrocks]

Doesn't look like it can move forward very fast yet.

[Dirtfire]

No hexapod robot can move forward very fast yet.

[Xiph1980]

Not too fond of the music. Had to turn audio off to prevent going nuts. Song is much much too repetitive, boring, and generic. Would've loved to hear the bot walk though, it looks very nice....

[S7ranger168]

OH MY GOD!!! It's a freaking Replicator!! :P

[GCm4n]

Indeed!!

[antdude]

Love the music with it. Haha.

[paulj985]

i want to have one to play around with

[otterpopjunkie]

Those legs are sexy.. I think I might get a 1200es!

[tyrokiller]

Now make it run. ;)

[epin8]

The movements the legs can make are amazing! But the way it moves around is too simplistic. I know its not easy to achieve this wonder. But it would be great if this spider was implemented with greater, more efficient movements.

[TectonInd]

Man, this has GOTTA go viral. It's ridiculous how amazing that is.

[MikePostDrums]

Oh, it will. It's featured on Tweakers net, a Dutch IT news website.. this video will probably receive around a 100k hits in a day.

[trylonperisphere]

The balance makes it look alive. Might be stating the obvious, but I had to say something before someone mentions the "uncanny valley" :P

[MrCoolanil123]

Spiderman 1

Spiderman 2

Spiderman 3

Spiderrobot 4

:P

[bretonion]

Hey. Really impressed with your hexapod. I am just about to build one for my Masters project. I am a little lost with the system controller. I like the idea of using a Fit-PC2 with Ubuntu 9.1. What software did you use to control the robot? How did you create a PIC 18F servo controller? Is it possible to controll each legs position?

Any help would b greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

[blegas78]

I did all the software myself, both for the PIC18F4550 and on Ubuntu 9.04. The Fit-PC2 performs the inverse kinematics, dynamic walking gait, and balance gestures. it also connects to the PS3 Sixaxis controller.

The PIC board takes advantage of the USB hardware peripheral in the PIC18F4550, and simply sends motor control protocol to each motor. Each position of each motor is calculated on the Fit-PC2, and is sent to the motors via the PIC board, so I can control the motors individually.

[bretonion]

Thanks for the reply. What software program did you use to program the heapod?

Are you planning on making your robot autonomous? Or free from an external power source?

[blegas78]

For the Fit-PC2, everything was done in C++.

For the PIC board, everything was done using MPLAB with the MCC18 compiler.

I am currently adding vision to the robot for autonomous behavior, and batteries will be added purely as a nicety in a few weeks. Good luck with your Masters project, I hope I have helped!

[bretonion]

Thanks. No doubt will drop you a line later in the course and let you know what i have done. Thanks for your help.

[Yovillefreakify]

Not to annoy you...but i have yet another question yyou seemt o answer wonderfully...can i add one of those arms to pick things up to a hexapod?

[blegas78]

No worries!

If you have the right tools, you can add whatever you want. The kits may not be designed to implement additional things like arms, but you can always figure out a way to mount it to the hexapod body yourself.

[Yovillefreakify]

And one last question..is the minimum use still okay or should i go high performance

[blegas78]

It's fine to go minimum performance, and you can upgrade over time. I would say the next step for upgrading would be:

12x HS-645

6x HS-245

Whatever your budget permits :)

[Yovillefreakify]

Dude you are a savoir

[Yovillefreakify]

Which also means the servos cost more then the nit ...250 for the kit but 690 dollars for the servos... grr

[Yovillefreakify]

Please send me a message ^.^

[Yovillefreakify]

How much does it cost to put one of these hexapod together?

[blegas78]

As shown, $2,500, but there's a lot of overly expensive motors in this one ;)

I highly recommend checking out a website that has a great forum and actual hexapod kits for sale for much cheaper than mine:

hexapodrobot (dot) com

[Yovillefreakify]

Okay thanx..oo one more thing.. i found a basic hexapod on robot shop. com, for only 250$ CAD, but the legs aren't my favorite. Is there anyway i can buy new legs to fit my liking or is made special so i can't?

[blegas78]

You can as long as the servos fit, but you can always customize everything.

Also, I think the kit you are referring to may not include motors,

[Yovillefreakify]

It says i need 18x Hitec HS-645 servos (RB-Hit-29)... and they're 42$ each if thats an amount and not a type or coding..I'd better get saving.

[blegas78]

Hmm, I actually think that as a minimum you can use

6x HS-645

6x HS-445

6x HS-245

You only need 18x HS-645 for the best performance.

If you are not an expert at coding, then check out the p.Brain HexEngine from the site I said above. It is a completely pre-programmed system for any custom sized hexapod, so you don't need to code as much.