hexapod robot

Animabot Rev3 – Mecha – Leg Sample

Posted by Emmanuel Sichet on 15/07/2019

Posted in: Animabot Rev3, Mecha. Tagged: 3D printer, Animabot, hexapod, hexapod robot. 9 Comments

The mechanical design is finished since few weeks, but I have been waiting some sample of the leg to check the tolerances, quality and color. This sample allowed to check the passage of the cable in the Coxa, the Tibia Cap (anti-slippery pad), servo mounting, etc..

I’m glad I ask I did that before the complete manufacturing because I found several issues. The passage for the cable needed to be deeper to protect it, the Pad was too small to hold in place properly and the color did not satisfied me totally… I’m still waiting for some more sample to compare and chose the final color !

Hopefully the samples will arrive soon, so I can order all the parts to assemble Animabot !

Animabot Rev3 – Mecha– Body design

Posted by Emmanuel Sichet on 07/06/2019

Posted in: Animabot Rev3, Mecha. Tagged: Animabot, hexapod, hexapod robot, Solidworks. Leave a comment

It’s been few months now since I started the design and it is approaching the end \o/. The main body and legs are finally done, but I still have to do a final check of tolerances, clearances, cabling , mounting, etc.. before sending the parts for productions. As mentioned earlier, the design is very close to Rev2, however, the internal structure has been improved to be more rigid and more reliable. On Rev2, I had too much flexibility between parts and torsion on the body (due to the 5 parts body assembly) which basically ruined everything… The legs axles have also been redesigned or better performance and the legs will be equipped with a separate End-Cap (ground contact) with a rubber part to increase adherence.

So, hopefully I overcome all these issues with this version 😀

The ear design is also done and I think it gives a pretty nice look to the robot ! It will gives Animabot much more expression capabilities and at the end it doesn’t look to organic and not too mechanic either which I find to be a good compromise. In any case, it is difficult to make a functional machine looking organic when you have to install real motors, joints, PCBs, cables, etc..

I still have the dock to do, So this will be the next task…

Animabot Rev3 – Hardware – Motherboard

Posted by Emmanuel Sichet on 29/05/2019

Posted in: Animabot Rev3, Hardware. Tagged: Animabot, hexapod, hexapod robot, STM32F4. Leave a comment

So I received the Motherboard and started populating it 🙂 All components are not yet soldered because I want to test the board step by step, starting with the MCU and the I2C bus (where all the sensors are connected).

Motherboard test

As of now, the following is working:

Flashing-Debugging the MCU
Flexible OLED via SPI
10DOF IMU via I2C
Eyes via I2C
Gesture Module

I still have some trouble with the RTOS and the IMU, after some time the tasks start to be delayed and the IMU is not responding anymore… but that will be for later, I want to finish the Body design and send it for printing first ! the next step is to mount the PSU and the Charger.

But now that I have the Eyes working I started implementing some expressions 😉 not so bad for a first try !

Animabot Rev2 – Final Assembly !

Posted by Emmanuel Sichet on 04/11/2015

Posted in: Animabot Rev2. Tagged: 3D printer, Animabot, herkulex, hexapod, hexapod robot, raspberry pi, STM32F4. 2 Comments

It’s been a while since the last post… mostly because my new job is taking away most of my time…

But also because I had to fix several issues in Anima before mounting the legs and the upper body. First I had to fix the sound problem, curiously the IR sensor was generating noise which was propagated up to the audio amplifier, thus generating audible noise… To fix it I added to capacitors (100nF & 10µF) on the sensor’s power connection. Then I burned the Li-ion charger 😦 so I had to replace some mosfet and add some heatsinks.

Finally after 20 months of design, tests, doubts, bug fix, etc… Animabot is assembled and ready to walk !!!

Stay tuned 😉

Animabot Rev2 – Body Assembly (part 3)

Posted by Emmanuel Sichet on 03/09/2015

Posted in: Animabot Rev2. Tagged: 3D printer, Animabot, hexapod, hexapod robot, raspberry pi, STM32F4. 2 Comments

Hello ! The assembly of Animabot is going well, I have almost finished 🙂 I’m mostly making cables and cables… Thinking about how I’m gonna put all of them into the body… But anyway, I’m also testing the electronic and everything is also fine up to now: Audio amp and speakers, IR telemeter, fan, Night LED, temperature sensor and power monitor and the ATX Raspi are working !!!

The Rapsi is also much thinner without all these big connectors 🙂 but I have some issues with the WIFI dongle and I need to test the webcam.

So I put all the parts together to see if all goes well, and for now it’s look like this :

Power ON baby !

I like it ! even if the parts are not perfect as I would like, and even if the design is full of errors, it doesn’t look so bad 🙂

More update soon 😉

Animabot Rev2 – Body Assembly (part 2)

Posted by Emmanuel Sichet on 23/08/2015

Posted in: Animabot Rev2. Tagged: Animabot, hexapod, hexapod robot. Leave a comment

Hi all ! Long time since the last update of the robot… I reprinted the head with the fan’s support and the air vent is slightly different, but now the head is completely finished ! The upper body is also in the print process, I only have the rear part and the hood to print and that’s it \o/

Hi there !

Head closeup

Head lock with cable holder

Head Mechanism

Front and middle upper body

As you can see on the pictures, the head is already mounted with all the inner parts, and it’s working as designed 🙂 The next step is to mount the speakers and prepare all the remaining cables for the final assembly.

I will soon modify the Raspi board to match my requirements. I have to check if all the connections are working fine before mounting the upper body, because once it’s done, it would be very difficult to access inside the robot…

Oh, and the legs are now ready for assembly on the body 😉

Stay tuned 😉

Animabot Rev2 – Body assembly !

Posted by Emmanuel Sichet on 28/07/2015

Posted in: Animabot Rev2. Tagged: Animabot, hexapod, hexapod robot. 2 Comments

Hi folks ! Been a while since the last update… This weekend I was pretty busy on the print side, I succeed to print all the part composing the lower body. The design is not yet perfect but it’s working well for now 😉 As you can see below, the body is divided in 5 pieces maintained together with screws.

Battery slot

Bottom body front

Bottom body back

Mounting system

The battery is integrated and connected, as well as the board’s support. The ATXRaspi, the IR telemeter and the LED board are also mounted and connected 😉 The next step now is to connect properly the Li-Ion Charger, the Power Board and the Audio Amplifier, before assembly the upper body !

Assembly Overview

ATXRaspi assembly

STM32 adapter assembly

Power Switchs

Power Switchs + ATXRaspi

Mounting system

As you can see, for now it’s a bit messy with all the cables, but I will try to organise it better in the next few days 😉 Anyway, I’m very happy to finally assembling Animabot after so much time of design !!!

Stay tuned 😉

Animabot Rev2 – Final Design (again)

Posted by Emmanuel Sichet on 07/07/2015

Posted in: Animabot Rev2, SolidWorks. Tagged: Animabot, hexapod, hexapod robot, Solidworks. Leave a comment

Hi all ! In order to wait for the real one, here are some rendering of the last version.

As you can see the tibias have been modified, same for the air vent of the head and the hood. The hood is now attached to the body with 4 small magnets (instead of screws).

Hi there !

Look at my new air vents !

Banana for scale…

Beware !

(I hope in reality Animabot will look as good as in the renderings…)

Later all 🙂

Animabot Rev2 – Tibias + Head

Posted by Emmanuel Sichet on 22/06/2015

Posted in: Animabot Rev2. Tagged: Animabot, drs-0101, Flashforge dreamer, hexapod, hexapod robot. Leave a comment

Hello ! I finished printing all the tibias and I’m now the coxas print… I also sprayed some rubber at the end of the tibia to avoid slipping.

Tibias mounted on femur

Slip-proof bumper

Tibia + femur overview

I also completely finish the head assembly

Front view

Rear view

Inside

As always, stay tuned 😉

Animabot Rev2 – Femur + Head assembly

Posted by Emmanuel Sichet on 16/06/2015

Posted in: Animabot Rev2. Tagged: Animabot, drs-0101, herkulex, hexapod, hexapod robot. 2 Comments

Hi all, So this weekend I have been working on the Coxa/Tibia design, and how to print them in the best way. These parts are now ready for “mass production” !