HEXAPOD ROBOT
OBJECTIVE
To create a robot that simulates an insect's movement under the supervision of the robotics research department of the National Taiwan University of Science and Technology.
DESIGN
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The hexapod uses six legs as the name suggests traversing through the terrain.
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There are 3 Futaba MC996R servos on each leg which means there are 18 servos in total.
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It is controlled with an Arduino mega in addition to a motor controller shield for simple wire management.
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The parts are laser cut by a local supplier and built by equipment provided by the university.
RESULTS
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The robot could successfully run as intended, yet there were additional modifications for its success.
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It could not support its own weight because of the weight of 18 servos and the design of the leg. Thus, four properly-lengthed standoffs were added on to support the weight as seen in the slideshow.
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Also, acrylic does not have much grip, so blue foam tips as seen in Figure 2 were added at end of the leg to increase friction.
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The robot is not as flexible as intended, yet with proper code, it was able to move and turn under command from the Arduino command prompt.