Me and my friend @thebiker_cat are building a 6-legged (hexapod) robot. The current focus is on stable motions and movement control. Future plans include expanding it into a fully functional home assistant with perception, interaction, and smart home integration.
In the last few days, I started writing some test for the servo driver board, to be able to controll 18 servos at once. What was really important to me, was that I could find some important servo errors, which would effect the robot in the future and could possibly damage the frame of the hexapod itsself. So i started writing some important tests like a speed test, accuracy test, and adjustment test, which would point out all different errors, so they can be fixed. While i was working on writing these servo tests my friend was already learning, how to do inverse kinematics and has already implemented some test methods and files.
While writing some tests I stumbled upon some problems, like working with the header file. I couldn’t access all the methods, but after some research I found a solution and could fix it. Otherwise, I had some Trouble with reading Inputs in the Serial Monitor. To be honest I still couldn’t quite fix them yet, but I am getting there.
My next steps would probably be finishing my tests ( because I was only able to do the speed test ). Furthermore my friend will explain the kinematics code to me, so we can work on it together and implement different walking styles and more.
I started the Hexapod Project by commenting and optimizing a first version of the file structure and some first methods for a leg of the hexapod. At first I was struggeling a bit with understanding c++ objects and classes and what header files do, but after a lot of research and commenting the code, I learned a lot of new stuff, so that I could start testing some of the Hardware.
That’s why I started implementing some test files to test the servo with just the esp32 or when it is connected to the servo driver board. For it to work me and my friend had to change the platformio file a bit, but now we both understand how to load up different & individual files on the esp32.
My next step would probably be implementing more test methods, since some of my hardware hasn’t arrived yet. Maybe I will start to look at the inverse kinematics, so the movement (for at least one leg) can be implemented soon.
