Building a Robot Dog (with an airsoft gun)
6 months ago
- #competition
- #mechanical-design
- #robotics
- Designed and built a quadruped robot dog for a 'Mech Warfare' airsoft competition.
- Chose a dynamic dog-like design for speed, inspired by Boston Dynamics' Spot and Unitree Stellar Hunter.
- Opted for a 4-bar linkage leg design to keep motors stationary and reduce workload.
- Implemented Forward Kinematics (FK) and Inverse Kinematics (IK) for leg movement calculations.
- Conducted a parameter sweep of 8000 leg and gait configurations to optimize design.
- Used Dynamixel MX-106R servos for their high quality and performance, despite their cost.
- Performed stress testing on the legs, identifying weaknesses in side load handling.
- Redesigned legs to strengthen against side-to-side forces and improve durability.
- Extended the design into 3D for side-to-side motion and overall robot stability.
- Utilized carbon fiber tubes for the chassis, impressed by their rigidity and lightweight properties.
- Developed a trot gait for coordinated leg movement, enabling forward, backward, and rotational motion.
- Built an airsoft turret with pan-tilt servos, a hopper for BBs, and a CSI camera for aiming.
- Encountered and partially solved the 'Bridging' problem in the BB hopper.
- Implemented IR LED tracking for auto-aim, though sunlight affected performance during competition.
- Used a Raspberry Pi 3b+ as the robot's core, with a web app for control and telemetry.
- Competed successfully, winning a match, but faced issues with gun jamming and part failures.
- Plans to improve the robot with Reinforcement Learning for gait optimization in future projects.