Best option to control hexapod with Maestro 18 servo control

Support Servo controllers and servos
1

Hi,

I’m new here and new to robotics in general, thus please bear with me.

I am planning to build a 3DOF/leg hexapod controlled by maestro 18. In the future, i would also want to integrate an arduino platform to control the maestro based on sensor/remote control inputs and eventually to make it a bit autonomous. (my related experience is general RC stuff/multicopters/some computer programming).

I have been studying inverse kinematics and i realize that usually when people build robots using only arduino, there is no other way to correctly compute the servo positions, thus the need for IK.

Question is: How is it best to control the hexapod in my case: RC+Arduino+serial+Maestro18? I see two options:

  1. Implement the IK in the arduino and send serial commands to the Maestro to control each servo individually.
  2. Load the movement sequences in the Maestro and call them from the arduino over the serial interface.

The requirements would be:

Thanks in advance,

2

Hello.

You could make a hexapod using either of those options. The two options basically reduce to a complex program on the Arduino and less setup on the Maestro vs a more complex setup on the Maestro but a simpler program on the Arduino. I suspect that it should not be too hard to switch between the two approaches, so you might just want to pick one for now and switch later if it looks like you would prefer the other option.

-Jon

3

Hi Jon,

Thanks for the quick answer. I guess my real question is: What is the recommended way to go that would end up with a smooth and fast hexapod?

thanks

4

We do not have specific recommendations for that. In general, I do not expect either of those two options to be substantially better or worse than the other.

-Jon