James Bruton’s robotic centipede of many legs

Unusually, no centipede has precisely 100 legs. They will have both extra or fewer than 100 legs, however not precisely 100 as a result of they all the time have an odd variety of pairs. Sadly, that signifies that James Bruton’s centipede robotic is anatomically incorrect — although cool nonetheless.

Bruton constructed this centipede robotic as a scaled-down prototype, as he plans to assemble a ridable model someday sooner or later. This robotic, which remains to be fairly massive, let him check the bizarre strolling mechanisms. The robotic has 5 segments, every of which comprises two pairs of legs. The mathematicians amongst you’ll have deduced that that equals 20 particular person legs. However the legs don’t function independently. In truth, all 20 of these legs are related mechanically. Every section has a drive shaft that strikes its legs via gears and linkages, and common joints join the drive shafts between segments.

That mechanical setup signifies that the centipede could be pushed by a single DC motor. An Arduino Mega 2560 board controls that and the 2 servo motors used for steering. These servos pull on elastic cords connecting the primary two segments. When one twine tightens, it forces the primary section to pivot to that facet (relative to the second section). The opposite segments then observe naturally, letting the robotic flip. The entire mechanical elements have been 3D-printed and Bruton can pilot the robotic utilizing his common distant management.

Sadly, this robotic’s revolutionary leg mechanisms didn’t work very properly. The toes had a bent to slip backwards, inflicting large effectivity losses. That signifies that Bruton should provide you with one other leg design earlier than he can scale the robotic as much as a full-size ridable model.