MorpHex, a hexapod robot | Hacker News Reader

MorpHex, a hexapod robot

zentasrobots.com

167 pointsluuse18 comments

The original post debuting the hexapod design: http://zentasrobots.com/2014/03/17/morphex-mkii/

What an awesome design. I would love to build one of those if they had a kit you could buy.

Reminds me a lot of http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Droideka. Would be very interested in reading about the software used to coordinate everything.

It reminds me more of the Planet Ice tanks from Shadow Raiders[1]. They even rolled like the MorpHex[2].

[1] http://youtu.be/7TfF3TUFNE8?t=8m49s

[2] http://youtu.be/-R_QhDBjKBQ?t=11m34s

Check out his robotic ant too: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDaNkff5Yyg

Beautiful. Is this the only one of its kind or are there other known hexagon-based robots? Seems such a practical design after seeing it in action.

How is it practical? It's a beautiful design, but far simpler designs can run circles around it in every scenario I can imagine. A small version might make for a fun desk toy. When I think practical, I think Boston Dynamics.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISznqY3kESI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6b4ZZQkcNEo

Wish sometime in the future such devices get waterproofed and can be used to search missing airplanes. Lost a loved one :(

Very sorry to hear that.

What's with the high-pitched noise in the videos? Is that coming from the robot or the camera or what?

I'd like to see this robot be built: http://youtu.be/cU-cO0RvpwQ?t=23m31s FlexBot by Jamie Hyneman

Motor and gear noise from the servos, probably.

Very Masamune Shirow! I like it. Seems like its mobility is pretty limited, though - except going downhill, of course.

I wonder if you can steer it at all while rolling, perhaps by going into that sort of pill bug shape a bit and messing with the weight distribution?

You should probably watch the video.

I did. Where else would I get "Masamune Shirow-esque"? I mean control while it's rolling downhill. They put it in semi- mode later, but I don't remember them controlling it while it was going down the driveway.

This is amazing but I did have to check myself when I said what a cute robot!

Why? It is cute.

No it's creepy IMO. (But cool.)

Amazing, looks like transformers will someday be a reality!

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