Challenge

During the Summer of 2023, I wanted to test and expand on my skills learned during my first year of college by building a small robot. I was really interested in hexapods, so I decided to try my hand at building one. My goals were simple, I just wanted to make it walk with a remote control, with the possibility of expanding later with autonomous behaviors.

Solution

The resulting robot was eventually named Hexie. Using 18 servos, I created the small arduino-based hexapod using almost entirely 3D printed parts. The robot has radio communication to connect to a joystick, and has a simple gait generator to manage creating positions for the servos. The robot is extremely stable and I am quite proud of it.

Future Plans

I have more plans for Hexie in the future, including adding sensors and autonomous behavior. At time of writing, I am working with a Raspberry Pi to setup ROS2 to enable vision-based and lidar-based navigation.