Whether they realize it or not, fans of Star Wars, Harry Potter, and the Disney+ series Andor may already be familiar with UK creator Matt Denton’s movie magic. But in 2012, Denton’s futuristic fabrications transcended the silver screen and landed in the real world with the debut of Mantis — a six-legged, two-ton, human-piloted, steel behemoth. Originally commissioned for commercial use, a […]
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At the Bay Area Maker Faire, we saw one of the coolest autonomous robots ever: Rhoeby, a navigation-capable hexapod. While the robot is built from a customized version of a standard ROBOTIS Bioloid “spider” kit, the real magic behind Rhoeby is the LIDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) system. LIDAR systems work in a similar fashion to radar. The system sends […]
Continue ReadingHexapods, mechanical creatures with six legs, can be one of the easier ways to make a walking robot. A hexapod was one of my first robotics projects, and it turned out great. Great for being around 4 inches tall that is! If you’d like inspiration to build something much bigger, and admittedly more awesome, check […]
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Dog-size insectoid robot features anodized aluminum frame, inline skate wheels.
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What has 6 legs, 19 servos, an Arduino for brains, and ultrasonic sensor eyes? It’s Hexy the Hexapod robot from Arcbotics, and it’s available in the Maker Shed just in time for the Holidays.
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Hexy is a robotic hexapod kit from Arcbotics. It’s a cute, cheap, easy and fun intro to advanced robots. It’s Arduino compatible, and 100% Open Hardware/Software. Unless you were one of the over-500 Kickstarter backers who supported Hexy at $175 or higher, a Hexy kit is going to be hard to come by. But you’ve […]
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Mike Estee has been laser-cutting hexapod limbs from cardboard and is making great progress on his hexapod project. As he explains:
Continue ReadingAs I’ve written about in the past, cost can be measured in many ways. For this exercise I’m primarily interested in cost of materials, cost of manufacturing, and assembly time. Design time isn’t particularly optimized here, but as we build on previous iterations, hopefully we can stay ahead of complexity. On the cold hard cash front, I think I’m doing pretty well. This little fellow consists of: $1.00 in cardboard, $54.60 in servos, and $29.95 in servo controllers.
