Gonk Droid
Project Description
Check out the SolidWorks model of this project on GrabCad!
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The Gonk Droid is an originally designed and manufactured bipedal robot inspired by the iconic Star Wars droids of the same name. Each leg is an indirect drive linkage powered by three servo motors which allow for complete range of motion in a 2D-plane. Currently, the biped walks at ~13 cm/s with a gait optimized for dynamic balancing during start and stop.
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This project is a work in progress. Future features include the addition of lidar sensors, cameras, and other interactive hardware that can allow the robot to behave intelligently in the environment.
Methods
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Conceptualized and drafted robot and all its parts/linkages
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Performed gait analysis on indirect drive linkage design
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Evaluated preliminary design by estimating center of mass, load on motors, and power usage
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Designed robot parts in SolidWorks to produce a detailed assembly model including screws and electronics
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3D printed and laser cut original parts to manufacture and assemble the robot
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Wired and soldered all electronics components including the Raspberry Pi, controller, power converter, motors, and battery
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Used a combination of inverse kinematics, key framing, simulation, and reinforcement learning in PyBullet to create the walking and turning program
Media
Walking Robot
Leg mechanism in motion
Full inner model render
ROS2 URDF Model for Reinforcement Learning
