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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
   2.1 Server and client boards
   2.2 Camera and ToF sensor
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