> Andrew,
>
> > Robotic segment sensors for some legged robotic play. :-)
>
> Ah, I bet that is the hexapod gait, three legs on the ground
> at all time, while the other three move, R/C servos for lift
> and forward/backward, am I right?
[rest deletia]
Nope! I'm going to use them as in-leg orientation sensors for a bipedal 'bot; I have a stash of older package accelerometers I've picked up over time. :-)
Here's the quick'n'dirty ASCII picture of the idea:
^ (+ve)
|
y
(+ve) <-x-+
[...] ==(M) )==============(M) )== [...]
The (M) is the local motor/muscle-wire, ")=" connects to the next/previous link, the accelerometer X-axis points along the length/radius of the link and the Y-axis points in the direction of rotation of the link, perpendicular to the radius.
The bonus about using accelerometers are:
- max +ve X value is the lowest energy state (least amount of energy required to hold the link self-weight)
- max -ve X value is the most unstable control point (inverted pendulum balancing challenge, but lowest self-wieght energy state as well)
- max +/-ve Y value is the highest energy state (requires most amount of energy to hold link self-weight horizontal)
It keeps the mechanical complexity down (no position sensing required within the motor), and I get to do a little PIC programming. My background is in Control Systems, so it'll be nice to actually use some of what I learned way-back-when... :-)
There are two very different branches I plan on pursuing this idea along: Really high-power a la BattleBots, and really low-power in the form of ClothBots.
The ClothBot is more in line with wearable computing; accelerometers + airogel capacitors + TiNi muscle wires + conductive thread + ambient power harvesting (self-winding watch mechanism as generator, solar, RF, etc.)... Loads'o'fun.
Count-down to moving into the house continues; workshop space at last!! :-)
Andrew.
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