October 21, 2012 at 14:13Unusual MorpHex Robot Design
A robot in a spherical body can roll in the indicated direction, and if necessary, it opens and goes on six limbs.
Norwegian engineer Kåre Halvorsen has been keen on building robots for many years. In 2006, he made the first robot with six legs, and since then specializes in bionics, that is, the use of technical designs that can be found in nature: for example, in insects or ants. However, his MorpHex robot is completely unlike anything.
The video shows that the robot is not rolling exactly. This is because the design has an asymmetric design (one hemisphere is heavier than the other). Now the author is trying to correct this flaw and make the parts more symmetrical.
So far, the robot can only roll in one direction. It is necessary to finish it a bit so that it can roll in an arbitrary direction without turning around. In addition, it is planned to decorate each of the 12 sections of the sphere with three LEDs for background illumination.
MorpHex became the winner of the April stage of the Boca Bearings 2012 Innovation Competition and made it to the finals of this contest with a prize pool of $ 20 thousand.
On his blog, Kare Halvorsen publishes many photographs of the MorpHex internal device, and earlier blog entries describe the initial stages of its creation , up to cutting individual parts and assembly of parts of the mechanism. Judging by the blog entries, the author has been working on this project for a little over two years.
Norwegian engineer Kåre Halvorsen has been keen on building robots for many years. In 2006, he made the first robot with six legs, and since then specializes in bionics, that is, the use of technical designs that can be found in nature: for example, in insects or ants. However, his MorpHex robot is completely unlike anything.
The video shows that the robot is not rolling exactly. This is because the design has an asymmetric design (one hemisphere is heavier than the other). Now the author is trying to correct this flaw and make the parts more symmetrical.
So far, the robot can only roll in one direction. It is necessary to finish it a bit so that it can roll in an arbitrary direction without turning around. In addition, it is planned to decorate each of the 12 sections of the sphere with three LEDs for background illumination.
MorpHex became the winner of the April stage of the Boca Bearings 2012 Innovation Competition and made it to the finals of this contest with a prize pool of $ 20 thousand.
On his blog, Kare Halvorsen publishes many photographs of the MorpHex internal device, and earlier blog entries describe the initial stages of its creation , up to cutting individual parts and assembly of parts of the mechanism. Judging by the blog entries, the author has been working on this project for a little over two years.
A lot of photos
