How to Make Arduino Hexapod Robot
This tutorial will demonstrate how I made an Arduino hexagon. The hexapod, as the name implies, has six legs. However, it also has an abdomen or tail, antennas, mandibles, functional eyes, and antennas. The hexapod looks like an ant and can be called an Arduino Robot.
Supplies
Overview
A custom-built Android app was created to control the robot. You can use the app to command the robot forwards or backward as well as turn left and right. The robot can move its head, tail, and can even bite, grab, drop, and attack.
Arduino Hexapod – Robot 3D Model
As usual, I began by creating the hexapod with a 3D modeling program. Each leg of the hexapod is composed of three joints or three servos. This means that we need 18 servos. In my case, I used the MG996R servos.
The tail is located on the back and is controlled by an additional MG996R servo. This ant robot's head has two degrees or it can tilt and roll. It is also driven by two additional servos. We need 21 servos total for this project. Type MG996R, and one smaller SG90 micro servo to drive the mandibles.
We also see the eyes of an ant, which were designed to fit an HC SR04 ultrasonic sensor. The parts are assembled between two plates. I also made a unique curved cover for the top plate to hide the wiring, Arduino, and battery.
Downloads
Assembling
Assembling 3d printed parts as shown in the photo.
Circuit Diagram
Okay, let's move on to the electronics. This circuit diagram shows the project's electronics. It is simple, but it does look complicated due to the many servos connections.
We also need the HC-05 Bluetooth module to communicate with our smartphone and some capacitors, resistors. The brain of the robot is the Arduino board. In this case, it's an Arduino Mega. It can control 12 servos with the Servo library.
A 3S LiPo battery with a voltage of 12V will power the robot. LiPo batteries are able to handle higher current draws, making them suitable for this project. They can draw approximately 10 amps at full load if all servos engage at once. The servos operating voltage ranges from 4.8V to 7.2V. This means I will need a DC-DC Buck converter to convert the 12V into 5V. Even if we use 2S LiPo batteries that have a voltage of 7.4V to 8.4V fully charged, we still need a buck converter. Although the buck converter I'm using for this project can handle 8 amps of current, I recommend that you use one between 10 and 15A to ensure enough power and to prevent overheating. The maximum current draw the robot could take when it was moving was 6 amp in my case.
Arduino Code
Download this code and upload to board.
Downloads
Android App
Install this app to control the robot.
Project Credit: https://howtomechatronics.com/
Conclusion
After this, you can make your own robot and control using mobile via bluetooth.