Biped Robot
My first robot in 2014 was a biped robot called Ruby. For many years, scientists, builders, and innovators have been working on biped robots that can walk like humans. Biped robots are mobile robots with movement provided by movable leg mechanisms. In contrast to wheeled robots, they can move upstairs and pass over obstacles at a slower pace. The high number of joints and maintaining stability while walking have always made building humanoid biped robots difficult. It is not a problem if you lack academic knowledge of forward and inverse kinematics, as well as control engineering. This project works just fine for beginners!
Details
Situation: Padre Conceicao College of Engineering, Verna, Goa, India; hosted a biped robotics event in 2014 to help students understand the basics of biped robots. The 2-day event included basic introductory sessions on biped robots.
Task: Our responsibility was to build a biped robot using the Arduino board. We were split into groups of 5 to work on this task. The teams had to successfully build a simple dancing biped robot at the end of the 2-day event. Biped robots are typically made up of rigid bodies connected by simple kinematic connections. Human body segments are not rigid, and this difference between humans and robots causes many discrepancies in their dynamic balance. Due to the impact of the robot's feet on the ground, the lack of compliance systems in biped robots may transfer high loads to the entire structure. The correct distribution of ground reaction forces from the ground to the robot structure is critical to avoiding actuator damage during robot gait.
Action: We decided to name our robot “Ruby” (a gemstone known for its beauty and strength). Ruby’s locomotion was controlled by servo motors. The robot chassis included plastic cut strips to maintain balance on the ground. To control the servo motors we used the Arduino atMega328 and the Arduino IDE to code it. Servo motors have larger power requirements as opposed to simple DC motors, sadly we did lose out on a lot of batteries in this process but the final result was worth the hustle.
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Result: Ruby was coded and built successfully. She managed to walk about a couple of steps. Sadly our team did not qualify for the finals but the entire process was an incredibly fun and learning-filled experience!
