Take a look at this clever hexapod robot created by University of Arizona electrical engineering student Matt Bunting. Don't forget to turn up the sound to listen to the great soundtrack (Ideas 5 by 12 Cent Dwarf).
(Dancing DIY Hexapod Robot Video)
The hexapod robo uses a Logitech QuickCam webcam to take successive images, which are analyzed to help the robot determine movement. The robot uses Intel's 1.60GHz Atom Z530 and US15W chipset and runs Ubuntu; it's learning algorithm can even help the robot relearn how to walk if one of the legs is damaged.
"One of the things I wanted to explore was the idea of reinforcement learning. What I wanted to do was not preprogram any of those walking algorithms, I wanted it to figure out how to walk straight forward on its own," Bunting said. "It has the ability to figure it out itself."
The first hexapod robots I remember seeing are from the 1984 film Runaway, starring Tom Selleck and Gene Simmons from the rock group KISS. Michael Crichton wrote and directed this unjustly neglected movie.
Tactile Skin Supplier Map
'What strange sensitivity! What an amazing development of science was manifested in every move and act and word of this Robot!' - Ray Cummings, 1931.
DIY Robot Scorpion Crushes It
'...it raised its front end off the ground and waved its antennae at them, then raised one armoured claw as if to snip them out of the sky.' - Neal Asher, 2008.
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Tactile Skin Supplier Map
'What strange sensitivity! What an amazing development of science was manifested in every move and act and word of this Robot!'
Orb Nomad Zero-Emission Electric Aircraft
'That explains how it was so easy for me to remain motionless in midair or to perch on a flagpole in imitation of a giant bird, even in the windy city of Chicago.'
DIY Robot Scorpion Crushes It
'...it raised its front end off the ground and waved its antennae at them, then raised one armoured claw as if to snip them out of the sky.'