Mighty Morphing Zenta Robots!
Monday, July 25th, 2011I came across Zenta’s Robotic Creations blog while looking up information on my own biped, and my jealousy meter is off the charts.
Just watch this video – Words, I have none.
Working with similar robots, I can only hope that one day I can make them move that smooth and agile.
Zenta’s latest project is a morphing robot. That’s right, a MORPHING ROBOT.
I tossed this brilliant Norwegian a few questions, and he was nice enough to get back to me!
What’s your background and how did you get into robotics?
My background is engineering. I’ve always been fascinated by all kind of robots since I was about 6 or 7 years. (I’m now 38 year) .I began building robots very early, using mostly meccano. At some point I found meccano a bit limiting and started making custom parts. But I didn’t get more serious into hobby robots before 2006 when I started on my rather famous Phoenix hexapod.
You mention in your blog that Archer is your first biped, why did you decide to construct a biped rather than continue your work with hexapod (and similar) projects? What are the different problems you run into when designing a biped versus designing a robot with more than two legs?
The main reason for why I wanted to construct a biped is that I had some ideas of how to control it using Inverse Kinematics (IK) based on the current code used for controlling hexapods. The main difference is balancing/stability. Also gear-slope/backlash in the gear of the servos is a challenge on bipeds. Keeping the weight as low as possible is also more important on bipeds. When it comes to stability I tried solving that on Archer by simply moving electronics and battery from side to side.
Your new hexapod, MorpHex, looks absolutely amazing. How did you come up with its unique design, and what difficulties you encountered and how they were overcome?
Thanks, glad you liked it! I got the idea for building MorpHex for over a year ago. Mainy I got the idea watching my two eldest kids playing with Bakugan and I thought it would be cool to make a hexapod that could transform into a sphere and back to a hex again. I’m still working on MorpHex, you can see what I’ve accomplished so far on my blog. The main challenge with MorpHex was to make the variable sized body, the body needed to expand for making more space between the leg sections. There has been several difficulties during the making of MorpHex. At some point I considered to end the project, so I had to do some changes to the leg design for making the robot less heavy and also for removing some conflict between the sphere sections.
A lot of your robots seem incredibly lifelike and fluid in their movement, how did you manage to accomplish this?
The smooth movement are simply accomplished by accurate control, correct math and correct timing. Jeroen Janssen’s work on the Phoenix hexapod Basic Atom Pro code make this rather easy to accomplish. Instead of using a PS2 controller, I’m using a custom made remote controller. The remote controller play a big role for accurate control.
Of all your previous projects, which one did you enjoy working on the most?
Oh, thats very hard to say. I enjoyed them all. I think I’ve to say Phoenix was the project I enjoyed most.
What future projects are you looking forward to working on?
A full humanoid biped, a new hexapod and or a new quad…
Lastly, if someone is interested in robotics, but has relatively little hands-on experience, where would you recommend they start?
Lego mindstorm or VEX Robotic System is a very good plattfom. I’ve to say I’ve not worked with either of them. But I plan to introduce Lego Mindstorm for my kids one day. Also, a hex or biped Brat kit from Lynxmotion is a good start.
