Giger Walks, Guns To Follow
Writing by Evan Ackerman on Friday, 13 of November , 2009 at 4:36 pm
Andrew Alter’s monstrous Mech Warrior “Hagetaka” that we previewed before RoboGames back in April ended up being just to monstrous for its own good. Andrew scaled things back a bit (but not too much) with Giger, a 5 kg, 24 servo (including 16 of those terrifying RX-64s), ten thousand dollar completely custom walking humanoid. The gait still needs a little bit of work, but remember, it’s being developed from scratch and there are a heck of a lot of servos (and other electronics) to coordinate. Besides being totally badass in its own right, Giger is going to get a weapons upgrade for Mech Warfare competitions, namely an arm or two replaced with airsoft guns.
Building a robot like this, or even a robot not nearly as complicated and/or expensive as this, takes a truly staggering amount of work and skill. Adrenalynn over on the Trossen Robotics forums has helpfully posted a series of 20 steps that will guarantee that you just might have a working Mech in time for RoboGames next April:
How To Win At Mechwarfare: 20 Simple Steps
1. Assemble a true walking ‘bot that can handle the payload
2. Teach it to walk
3. Teach it to walk untethered
4. Refine the walking
5. Integrate the camera and scoring system
6. Teach it to walk again
7. Teach it to walk untethered again
8. Increase the capacity of your batteries
9. Teach it to walk again
10. Teach it to walk untethered again
11. Add a turret and gun(s) – lighter the better
12. Teach it to shoot with some accuracy
13. Teach it to shoot with some accuracy untethered
14. Teach it to walk again
15. Teach it to walk untethered again
16. The night before/day of the event when it all blows up, start at step 1.
17. Discover that your wireless system doesn’t work for squat in the noisy RF environment. Tweak and Tune all day.
18. Finally get everything working the last day/couple matches
19. Burn up a servo (or three)
20. Rinse/Lather/Repeat
After about 100 hours of work, Giger is currently at step 4. But there’s nothing to worry about, ’cause there’s still plenty of time before step 16, where everything blows up at the last minute and you have to start over anyway. Yay robotics!
[ Let's Make Robots ] and [ Trossen ] VIA [ MAKE ]
Comments (1)
Category: Competitive, DIY, Hobby
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Comment by Julia
Made Saturday, 20 of February , 2010 at 2:57 am
great robot!
but walking looks quit strange! not realy balanced.
good luck for your next steps
have you seen this one?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHJJQ0zNNOM
big dog. amazing
Julia