Ever since the LidarLite went on indefinite backorder, we’ve been looking for a cheap and reliable alternative. Researchers from MIT and CSAIL are a couple months away from presenting this infrared depth sensing system using a cheap laser attached to a smartphone. They’re aiming big, with hopes to use this sensor for autonomous golf carts, wheelchairs, and drones.

“My group has been strongly pushing for a device-centric approach to smarter cities, versus today’s largely vehicle-centric or infrastructure-centric approach,” says Li-Shiuan Peh, a professor of electrical engineering and computer science whose group developed the system. “This is because phones have a more rapid upgrade-and-replacement cycle than vehicles. Cars are replaced in the timeframe of a decade, while phones are replaced every one or two years. This has led to drivers just using phone GPS today, as it works well, is pervasive, and stays up-to-date. I believe the device industry will increasingly drive the future of transportation.”

Take command of your RobotGeek Snapper Arm with Arm Link! Arm Link lets you pose and play back a sequence of movements on your robot arm easily. We put out an Instructable that covers set-up and usage, so you can get your robot arm ready to entertain!

We had one of our arms:

feed Kyle a tasty snack

hack the planet

open an RFID Lockbox

dish out the high fives

help clean up office clutter

and even drive a hexapod around.

We’d love to see your robot arm doing some crazy things!

You can find the Instructable here, or go to the RobotGeek Learning site here and here for the same instruction.

User Dan Thilderkvist used a Trossen Robotics PhantomX AX Hexapod in his master thesis, “Motion Control of Hexapod using Model-Based Design”! This hexapod keeps itself level as a table beneath it is tilted, jostled, and generally jarred about. Short video, excellent work!

Forum User tigakub has made a hexapod of his own design, and there is a fairly active forum post to join in on. The legs remind me of prosthetic running blades, which is not only a cool form to take, but they add subtle functionality as well. This robot has been upgraded several times throughout the thread, and it is interesting to follow its evolution! This video is one of a few in the thread, showing off the Adaptive Load Balancing abilities of the robot.

One of our favorite roboticists, r3n33, has been up to some magic with lite and mirrors. R3n33 has used a spinning mirror to get a 360 degree view with a LIDAR-lite sensor, without moving the sensor itself. The results speak for themselves, but here’s what r3n33 had to say about it:

This is my idea for using the LIDAR-lite sensor to produce readings in (as close to) a 360 degree view without spinning the sensor itself. I decided to start this project to give some life to my sensor which had never had a real purpose until now.

Thanks to my 3D printer I was able to quickly produce a “rig” to hold the sensor over a mirror. The mirror is attached to a 3D printed plate that is designed to hold the mirror at a 45 degree angle. This will allow me to bend the light 90 degrees from the sensor’s emitter. The mirror holder is attached to a stepper motor that will allow me to rotate the sensor’s light in a 360 degree view.

Before I go on I’ve presented a few issues.

Blocking the view. To hold the sensor over the mirror there will be an arm somewhere in the 360 degree view. I’ve already taken some action here and removed some of the arm material. In fact if I remove too much more the PLA plastic I’ve used won’t be rigid enough to hold the sensor still.

The mirror has to be quite large. This is something I discovered along the way. When it was just an idea in my head the mirror was really small but to ensure both the emitter and receiver are 100% in view I had to use the size you see.

Knowing the mirror position. Because I’m only using a stepper motor for this first design I get no positional feedback. I’ll have to assume the mirror position by starting the motor and firmware at a known point.

Reading accuracy. By bending the light alone there is going to be a small offset introduced. Then there is the ever changing distance of the mirror as it rotates. I chose to align the emitter of the sensor to the center of the mirror. This ensures the light will project in a parallel plane. When the light is received it might bounce off the high side of the mirror in one direction and the low side on the other. I may or may not concern myself with such slight offsets introduced in the readings.

Ok, Ok, this actually isn’t a battle between a cat and a Hexapod, but its a video with a cat and a hexapod, so that counts for something, right? This video, uploaded to user NOXGENUS RECORDINGS on YouTube, features a Trossen Robotics PhantomX AX Hexapod with Dynamixel AX-18 servos running Phoenix Code. The user mentions having blown a cell in the LiPo battery in the video description, and it is advisable to take caution when charging, storing, and using LiPo batteries. This PhantomX exhibits some interesting gaits, and is generally amusing to watch (look for the cat). Though we don’t officially support the Phoenix Code or Firmware (it is a community driven project), we offer a guide to get anyone interested started with it!