Tachikoma — Ghost in the Shell in real life
My latest and probably most ambitious project so far. A walking robot isn't anything unusual — there are plenty of them — but they all share one issue: power efficiency.
My latest and probably most ambitious project so far. A walking robot isn't anything unusual — there are plenty of those — but they all share one problem: they're not great on power use.
To get around it, I integrated the drive train into the legs. That means the robot can clear obstacles that effectively stop most small robots dead in their tracks.
Tachikoma — Ghost in the Shell in real life. Japanese cartoons turn out to inspire more than inverse-kinematics textbooks.
The inspiration came partly from the Anime series Ghost in the Shell — those armoured tanks were four-legged but rolled along streets and other surfaces on small wheels at the end of each "limb" — and partly from a great robot project that did the same thing: rolling along on unpowered wheels by performing specific movements.
Right now the project is about 85% mechanically done. Wheel stabilisation is missing, so for the moment that's set aside in favour of generating sensible "walking" algorithms.
I also swapped out the original Asus WL-500 Premium router-based computer. Despite giving us WiFi, USB, Ethernet, and a 300MHz CPU, it draws far too much current — 1500mA disqualifies it for mobile devices. Tachikoma now runs on a Gumstix, which draws under 100mA and packs a 600MHz PXA, plus WiFi, USB, etc.
A presentation/3D model of the robot is available for download.