mkhuthir / robospider

A hexapod spider robot using Robotis CM-700 controller and Dynamixel servos.

RoboSpider

YouTube Video:

A hexapod spider robot controlled by Robotis CM-700 controller, motorized by twenty Robotis Dynamixel AX-18A servos, and one Robotis AX-S1 integrated sensor mounted on its head. The robot frame is a slightly modified TrossenRobotics ABS PhantomX kit.

Robot Controller (Robotis CM-700):

There are many options of robotic controllers in the market and it is a great fun to try it all. Initially I started this spider project using the 1st version of TrossenRobotics Arbotix controller with the open source software from the same company. Then I tried the ROBOTIS OpenCM9.04 open source controller along with its Arduino like IDE. Finally, I picked ROBOTIS CM-700 controller along with ROBOTIS RoboPlus Software. I’m not sure how long I will keep using it.

What I like about CM-700 is its compact design, the low-power 8-bit AVR RISC-based microcontroller (ATMEL ATMEGA2561) which is widely used in many applications including Arduino boards, its big number of ports, and the very user friendly RoboPlus software.

Controller Specfications:

• MCU : ATMEL ATMega2561
• Working Temperature : -5℃~70℃*
• Weight : 37.3g
• Working Voltage:
  • Allowed Range : 7V ~ 35V
• Current:
  • Consumed Current When idle : 40mA
  • Exterior I/O Maximum Current : 0.9A
  • Overall Maximum Current : 10A (Fuse)
• Internal I/O Device
  • Button : 2 sets (Reset 1, Start 1)
  • Temperature Sensor : 1
  • Voltage Sensor : 1
• External I/O Device
  • OLLO 5 pin I/O Port : 6
  • 3-Pin Connector TTL Communication : 4
  • 4-Pin Connector RS-485 Communication : 5

Robot Motors (Robotis AX-18A):

Robot Sensors (Robotis AX-S1):

Frame (Customised from PhantomX MK1):

Battery:

Programming Hardware (Robotis LN-101):

Programming Software (Robotis RoboPlus 1.x and 2.x):

Repository Contents

• /Docs - Project Related documentations.
• /RoboPlus Files - Motion,Task, and Design Files generated using Robotis RoboPlus 1.x & 2.x
• /Research Paper - Related robotics research documents.

#Version History

• Version 1.0 (work in progress).

License Information

All code in this repo is open source so please feel free to do anything you want with it.