Today we spent most of the day experimenting with the code for the servos, which control the legs. We are working on two different approaches for making the robot walk. There are five legs in total, like star. The first approach involves keeping the support leg — the alternate one on the ground — mostly straight and would look something like a human cartwheel. The second approach would allow the support leg to bend, which would be an easier solution for movement, but we prefer the elegance of the first.

While experimenting with the movement of the legs, we encountered a few problems. First, the robot legs were not heavy enough to flip the robot over into the next position. First, we tried laser cutting pieces of wood to add weight to the ends of the legs, but this was not sufficient. Eventually, we decided to go back to the 3D model and increase the length of the legs in SolidWorks to give them more weight. We are excited to try out the robot tomorrow!

(I do not have any pictures of the code or model because we did it on the IMac.)