Mike writes –
“MiniMechadon was designed/constructed from Nov ’02 to Dec ’03. Currently, the mechanics and electrical hardware are complete. I have written some test code to exercise the servos and demonstrate the flexibility of the robot and for basic walking.
The main goal of the project is to experiment with learning algorithms that will allow the robot to learn how to walk, rather than programming it to do so. The physical design is intended to be a simpler version of my Mechadon robot (12 DOF). While simpler than Mechadon, I feel there is still enough complexity to make the problem interesting while not being overly elaborate. My hope is that the techniques developed with MiniMechadon can be extended to more complex robots such as Mechadon…
…Most of the construction of the robot is brass tubing soldered together with a small pencil torch. The wiring on the legs was run through the tubing so it is not visible. The brass tubing is also used for the bearings in the leg joints. The white plastic pieces were machined from UHMW (a plastic similar to nylon). To be different, I made the circuit board for the control system into a 3-D shape out of 9 separate panels to give the robot a unique look (intended to be a streamlined version of the AT-ST walkers from the Star Wars movies).” Thanks Simon! – Link & mirror.
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