If QWAK stood for something it would have to be; Quadruped Walker, All Kindsa.
Details
This project has been a several years work in progress. I'd moved to Sydney, Australia in early 2013 and didn't take it along. Now that I am back in San Francisco I'm going to start hacking on it again.
Beyond the last post I had done some basic testing with RC only and even with my very old Futaba transmitter I was able to get the little guy to walk. I'd also be started work on the eventual AVR based control system. Code is available on GitHub ( https://github.com/morganrallen/Qwak ) although there isn't much to it beyond some basic read RC output PWM. Next steps will be to make a larger mounting plate, create a smaller power system (Polou switching power supply and small LiPo) and get back to coding. Then weaponize of course.
My local 'open friendly hacker space' wanted to charge me an exorbitant amount of money to show I knew how to use a mill already, so instead I bought a mini-mill of amazing for around $300.
First Blood
QWAK was built in a dirty garage, fathered by an ill tempered Chinese mill and came out dowsed in blood. MY BLOOD. Main mounting plate. Servo bodies attach here. It came out too small but this is the material I had at the time. I'll probably make a new plate in the near future.
These are the main leg assemblies. Most the the Aluminium I used was from weather stripping. So it was actually pretty easy to take the L-shaped window seams and use them for joints. Its difficult to tell in these pictures but the leg end pieces was simply ripped into an (long) L-shape and attached to the servo.
This is the complete assembly and basically how it exists at the moment.
While I was waiting on my mini-mill to arrive I decided to do some concept design in (then Google) Sketchup. I was constrained by only having 8 servos on hand and unwilling to buy more with a move in the near future.
Overall design concept.
Originally I'd planned on using two pieces to create an X for mounting but I found it to be less stable and required more machining than I'd had patience for.
This details the center plate design I wanted. The hexagon provides more mounting space than the square but I didn't have any starting pieces large enough to create the desired piece.
Nice work! I'm building something similar: hackaday.io/project/19515-aimos. I hope you can find something useful in my research - I'm building it non-commercial and totally open.
There is both software and hardware, although I havent posted the Microcontroller code and the driver that talks to it yet - it is working, but I have been stalled for a while too, circumstances out of my control. Thanks to HaD I'm now building again.
Mine has an extra joint to raise the knee while taking a step. My original design was very similar to yours, but I found as the weight increased I had to find a way to counterbalance by moving the centre of gravity over the tripod it stands on while lifting the leg. It also has a camera and will have behaviours like testing surfaces and objects so I put the ability to point the camera in the legs; only two more servos compared to a 'neck', and it can address any coordinate with the foot for deliberate movement.
Aw man... was hoping to see a video of this thing twitching it's way across the room. Next time you're working on it I'd love to see a quick video demo.
Hi
Nice to meet you after viewing your profile i am Jacinda, from (jakarta) indonesia,
i have a project discussion with you please email me on: (jacinda.seiler@yahoo.com)