p1:1 – zelda guardian – hexapod

If you are a gamer or a fan of Nintendo products, you probably already know of The Legend of Zelda. The most recent release of this series is called Breath of the Wild, which was released on the Switch(tm). In this open world game, you are free to go and do just about anything and everything, which has made it one of the greatest games ever made.

In the game, there are several different types of guardians, but the one I’ll be focusing on here are the six legged, autonomous drones that patrol the land. These guys can be difficult to defeat if you don’t have the right equipment or if they gang up on you. They are a popular character in the Breath of the Wild lore and one of my personal favorites due to how they look and move.

I’m a little late to this since the game has been out for three years. But, I didn’t have a 3D printer three years ago. There have been a couple of people who have modeled and 3D printed a guardian over the years. Most noteworthy has been adafruit, which you can checkout below.

When I first saw this video a couple years ago, I thought it was amazing. But I also wondered “Why don’t they make it walk too?” I’ve done a search but haven’t been able to find anyone making a walking guardian that also behaved like it does in the game.

So, that is my goal. Guardians are hexapod robots after all and there is a multitude of information out there on how to build and program one. Although, I have yet to find one that is a step by step tutorial. If you know of one, please let me know in the comments or shoot me a message via the connect form. For this project I want to build a guardian hexapod robot with the following features:

• walks via remote control using an app
• LED lights to illuminate the guardian like in the game
• attack mode – guardian “eyeball” turns red
• autonomous mode where:
  • walks around aimlessly while avoiding obstacles
  • detects object somehow and walks toward it to attack
  • attacks by changing “eyeball” light to red and maybe turn on a “laser”?

Will I be able to do this? I have no idea but I’m going to give it a shot. I know I’ll be able to build a hexapod robot. The question is whether i’ll be able to build one within the body of a guardian and have it perform all the features listed above. We’re gonna find out together.

This post serves as an introduction to the project concept and goal. The next post in this series will outline the steps and milestones to complete the project. Each post thereafter will be dedicated to each step of the outline so that by going through the project series, anyone will be able to do what I did. It’ll also be a great reference for myself if I ever decide to do a different but similar project in the future. For now, stay tuned for the project outline for the guardian hexapod in the next post!