Demo 3 - Walker

Source Code on GitHub

Autonomous Crane | Hexapod Walker

System Architecture | Software Design | Electrical Design | Mechanical Design

Mechanical Design

The mechanical design for this demo was created in AutoDesk Inventor. The three main components of the design are the chassis, legs, and gripper.

Chassis

The chassis is constructed from 3D printed plastic to make it sturdy while allowing a custom shape designed for a walking robot. The legs are each mounted to the sides of the chassis via the XL-320 servos driving them and the gripper is mounted to the front of the chassis in a similar manner. The Single Board Computer and camera are anchored to the top of the chassis, while the batteries are anchored to the bottom of the chassis to avoid obstructing movement and to lower the center of gravity of the robot.

Legs

The legs are also constructed from 3D printed plastic, primarily to allow for custom shaped legs to best match the requirements for this robot. They are each driven by an XL-320 servo, by which they are also anchored to the chassis. They use guides in the chassis to transform the rotational movement of the servos into the sweeping movement required for walking. The legs are tapered to allow smooth movement through the guides at all angles while still being large enough at the top to attach to the servos via bearings.

Gripper

The gripper has a few 3D printed plastic pieces in the shape of a claw (not pictured). An XL-320 servo opens and closes the claw while a second servo can lift the claw up and down. The claw additionally has several attached pieces of rubber to improve its grip.