Robotis Hexapod Project

I have always had a great love of hexapods. I think it comes from the fact that Rodney Brooks' robot Genghis was one of the early, original robots I saw and captivated me. I still believe that Genghis was the reason I so desperately want a robot kit to build and originally got involved in robotics.

So I was looking over all the various kits, electronics and servos I have, and thought, with all the software work I have been doing with Nao, it would be nice to do a bit of a hardware project. With this in mind I decided to repurpose my Bioloid Humanoid and build a hexapod using the servos and some of the frames. I have built a hexapod with the bioloid kit before, but have always been unhappy with the main body structure for it. Having a hunt around on-line I decided to purchase a Lynxmotion 3R body kit chassis from Active Robots. This chassis provides a large circular base for a hexapod with the option of an upper deck at a later date. It did, however, require a bit of modification for it to work with the Robotis AX-12 servos. The spacers provided with the Lynxmotion kit are designed to provide a 47mm space between the top and bottom of the chassis. The Robotis servos need approximately 41mm. I considered cutting down the spacers but then opted to create new ones.

Nao Podcatcher - Download and play your favourite feeds

I had been wondering about service type applications for the Nao robot platform. To take this further, I decide to indulge my enjoyment of story podcasts, and particularly Norm Sherman's The Drabblecast. Subsequently, I have developed a basic service application for Nao that enables him to download podcasts, and them provide a method to navigate the playlist and play the episode.

The podcatcher can handle many different feeds and these are configured via a simple widget on a web page, making it easily accessible. The behaviour has no animations as it is intended to be used while Nao is doing other things such as household chores or enslaving humanity. Anyway, here is a very basic demo.

Nao, Thermal Array Sensors and I2C

Well, inspired by TheAmazel and his bluetooth project, I have been looking at what I can do to add additional hardware to my Nao. The Nao Next Gen, the latest release from Aldebaran, includes a USB port in the back of Nao's head. This got me thinking, what if we could use that port to provide an extension bus using I2C. After some checking with other members of the Nao Developer Program, I was able to ascertain that the DevanTech USB to I2C module would be recognised by Nao as a serial port. Nao also has Python and an implementation of PySerial installed as standard.

Using the USB to I2C module and a thermal array sensor (DevanTech TPA81), I have been able to prototype the interface and software required to attached I2C devices to Nao, starting with the thermal array sensor. Here is a short video showing it all in operation.