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Hexpodling

The "Hexpodling" is a work-in-progress, 3-degrees of freedom (3DOF) hexapod robot based on the Vorpal from Vorpal Robotics. The original Vorpal is remote-controlled and 2DOF; it is aimed at teaching in schools.

An earlier version used ESP32 microcontrollers running MicroPython. I switched to MMBasic because I really liked the idea of a BASIC controlled robot, plus I was not happy with the performance of MicroPython for the leg control.

This robot is driven by two "brains" communicating via a serial connection:

• A Raspberry Pi Pico microcontroller implements the "walk engine", which controls the servos, sequences leg movements and gaits (inverse kinematics), and manages the power. The "walk engine" acts as a server and accepts simple commands via an onboard serial port. It runs MMBasic using the PicoMite firmware by Peter Mather and Geoff Graham.
• A second Pico microcontroller acts as a client and will implement autonomous behaviour. It has connectors for various sensors. It also runs MMBasic.

Content

1. Mechanics
2. Electronics
3. PCBs

Repository structure

├───pcbs                           PCB as Fritzing or KiCad files, BOM
├───code        
|    ├───micropython               MicroPython code (DEPRECIATED)
|    |    ├───hexpodling           Code for both boards   
|    |    └───modules              Additional Python modules    
|    └───mmbasic                   MMBasic code for both boards                   
├───pictures                       Pictures for WiKi
└───printed_parts                  Printed parts, .stl