James Bruton’s robotic centipede of many legs

Unusually, no centipede has precisely 100 legs. They will have both extra or fewer than 100 legs, however not precisely 100 as a result of they all the time have an odd variety of pairs. Sadly, that signifies that James Bruton’s centipede robotic is anatomically incorrect — although cool nonetheless.

Bruton constructed this centipede robotic as a scaled-down prototype, as he plans to assemble a ridable model someday sooner or later. This robotic, which continues to be fairly giant, let him check the bizarre strolling mechanisms. The robotic has 5 segments, every of which accommodates two pairs of legs. The mathematicians amongst you should have deduced that that equals 20 particular person legs. However the legs don’t function independently. In reality, all 20 of these legs are linked mechanically. Every phase has a drive shaft that strikes its legs by gears and linkages, and common joints join the drive shafts between segments.

That mechanical setup signifies that the centipede may be pushed by a single DC motor. An Arduino Mega 2560 board controls that and the 2 servo motors used for steering. These servos pull on elastic cords connecting the primary two segments. When one twine tightens, it forces the primary phase to pivot to that aspect (relative to the second phase). The opposite segments then comply with naturally, letting the robotic flip. All the mechanical components had been 3D-printed and Bruton can pilot the robotic utilizing his common distant management.

Sadly, this robotic’s revolutionary leg mechanisms didn’t work very effectively. The ft had an inclination to slip backwards, inflicting enormous effectivity losses. That signifies that Bruton should provide you with one other leg design earlier than he can scale the robotic as much as a full-size ridable model.

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