p1:2 – zelda guardian hexapod

In part 2 of this project series, I’ll be outlining the project tasks. There is no time line since I will be working on this in my free time. This is my first time taking on a project like this, so this outline is more of a first draft than a set in stone task list. There will likely be changes to this outline as I work through the project. But by the end of it, I should have a fairly good template for future projects.

You can clearly see my thinking from the outline. I anticipate the most difficult part of this project will be determining equipment specs and doing the programming for the movement and path planning. These aspects require a lot of calculations and math, which need to be worked out before I can convert the equations into code. I’ll be doing this through modeling and graphing, all of which I will be walking through in each of the posts for that part of the series.

Comments and questions are welcome. Note, I am still very new to all this and am learning as I go. I hope you enjoy the experience with me.

• Planning
  • Requirements
    • Remote control via app
    • Walking that emulates game character
    • Lighting that emulates game character
      • Standard
      • Attack
  • Extra Features
    • Autonomous mode
      • Walks about randomly
      • Obstacle avoidance
      • Detect motion/object and moves toward it to attack
  • Anticipated Materials
    • 3D Printed links and guardian shell
    • Servo motors
    • Arduino or Raspberry Pi
    • LEDs
    • Sensors
    • Wiring and misc.
• Design
  • Sketching
    • Kinematic model
    • Basic tripod gait model
  • Modeling
    • Base structure
      • Servo motors
      • Control board (Arduino/RaspPi)
      • LED placement
      • Sensor placement
    • Guardian shell
  • Equations
    • Inverse Kinematic Equations
    • Path Planning
    • Torque, speed, load requirements
  • Materials Re-assessment
    • 3D printed links and shell
      • Filament selection
    • Servo Motors
      • Spec and select motor based on torque, speed, load requirements
    • Control Board
      • Select Arduino or Rasperry Pi based on input and processing requirements
    • LEDs
      • Select LED type and colors
    • Sensors
      • Select sensor based on desired feature
    • Wiring and misc
• Programming
  • Walking
    • One Leg
      • Basic movement
      • Refining movement
    • All Legs
      • Basic movement for tripod gait
      • Refining tripod gait movement
  • Remote Control App
  • Lighting
    • Standard lighting
    • Attack lighting
  • Testing
    • Test control for movement
    • Test control for lighting (attack mode)
  • Autonomous Mode
    • Random walking
    • Sensors
      • Obstacle avoidance
      • Detection and response
    • Attack mode
• Refinement
  • Adjustments as necessary

Based on the outline above, you can probably see that the planning stage is pretty much complete. For the design stage, it’ll be another 3-4 weeks before my 3D print arrives. While I wait for it, I am procuring a PC in order to run Autodesk Fusion 360, which will be my CAD/CAM software of choice. It’s free for my purposes and is extremely powerful. Unfortunately, it does not run on Linux or Chrome OS, which are the operating systems I primarily use at the moment.

But, before any of the fun with Fusion 360, I need to complete the sketching stage. I’ll hand draw them first, but I will recreate them digitally for posting. Let’s hope I get this part correct because everything else depends on it. Stay tuned for the next post!