A fun project that I’ve been working on in my spare time. This little guy was obviously inspired by the new athlete platform that NASA whats the fly to the moon in and decade or two. I was trying to make something a little smaller, you know something that might be feasible to make in a garage machine shop.
What is show would weigh around 130 lbs but there a still a few motors to add (shoulder joint twisting), and batteries and electronics so I bet it would come out around 170 lbs. I could lift an additional 100 - 150 pounds and would have a max cruising speed over flat terrain of 15 fps. The drive motors are housed inside the wheel and the machine would have a total of 36 motors (6 motors per leg).
I really like the idea of playing with something like this cause it close to the optimal off road transport. It’s stable, can traverse amazingly steep/rugged terrain but given a flat surface can get up to a respectable speed. I’m still debating whether the body should be below (as shown), above or at the same height as the wheels. I originally put it below since this would give the machine a base the “rest” on when not in use but…
The media gallery seemed dead, and I figured a few people might get a kick out of it.
I have a question about each Wheel module – i.e. the wheel, black mount, and any associated gearing or motors that rest specifically on the black mount. Is the wheel module designed to remain vertical on all terrain or adjust to it?
I don’t see why you need to decide between a high or low base. Isn’t the entire point of the legs so that the base (or the wheels) can be lifted over obstacles?
I’d love to see this built, but I’d like to recommend that you do it on a FAR smaller scale. This could very easily become a $20,000, four-year project. A pretty hefty burden if you aren’t working as part of a team…
A really cool prototype would be to attach wheels to the legs of a lynxmotion Hexapod.
This would provide you with a sturdy mechanical base and a “brain” to boot.
Believe me, I hear you when you say I should make it smaller. I would want to prototype this using some sort of modular servo system like the bioloid before I ever started making the actual parts. However, given that I’m currently and plan of continuing to be a poor college student for the foreseeable future I don’t either thing will happen with any type of urgency.
Its not really that I’m really excited about the banebots, its more that I had a CAD for them, they aren’t completely junk, and at least in theory they would work. The only place that I would be sure to use them is in the wheels because the does require a planetary for compactness and banebots aren’t too difficult to rip apart. If I were intending to build this in the near future I would probably try to find a better suited motor which would have a longer lifetime.
In reference to the size questions. You can vaguely estimate the size based on those being the 36mm BB gearboxes, but for a more precise idea, with the legs in that position it is 5’ across and 18" tall. The body is about 3" off the floor and the wheels are four inches in diameter.
When it comes to the position of the wheels, the original idea was for the module to remain vertical pretty much always. However, there are no constraints to make this a law, it should have the structure to remain at almost and angle as long as it is the wheel that is indeed touching the ground and supporting the weight.
