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Mechanisms Building a walking mechanism with legs

Discussion in 'Level Creation Help' started by shultz, Jul 1, 2020.

  1. shultz

    shultz Member

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    I've seen at least two types of "vehicles" so far in Mekorama levels:
    • Ones with motors for wheels
    • Ones that B pushes while riding as an autopilot hack
    I've been trying to build a walking robot / walking mechanism, using two or more legs. After a few iterations, I have one that's fairly successful! It gets stuck occasionally but always seems to unstick itself and keep plodding on! I'm curious if you get consistent walking on your device?

    [​IMG]

    Mechanism

    The basic mechanism behind the walker is a piston, which is 3 separate moving pieces. They need to be connected to a free-floating frame. For this piston demo, the frame is static stone blocks:

    [​IMG]

    Previous Attempts

    It took me a while to build a semi-successful walker. The first major / large attempt I tried is this unsuccessful 6-legged walker:

    [​IMG]

    "Borp" is ancient Greek for "I pray for the death that will not embrace me, my life is God's mistake"

    One thing to point out is that you need the legs to all rotate the same way, so you need to have two motors facing the same direction, or a way to make the legs spin the same way, which can be a bit awkward to design.

    My next attempt was an unsuccessful quadropod:

    [​IMG]

    "Blip" in a dead dialect of Ukranian means "Unstoppable toilet river" (it doesn't translate well).

    Then I tried out an unsuccessful walker with two legs, inspired by those little wind up toys that walk:

    [​IMG]

    It was during this design I realized I needed two things to make the walker reliable:
    • You need each leg to rotate opposite the other one. To do this, you can't use two motors because it's easy for them to get out of sync and the legs don't step correctly. You need a single motor with an axle running between the two legs
    • It's more stable to have the motors on the bottom than the top of the legs. I don't know why or if this is a requirement. I just noticed that Borp, may he burn in hell, is less stable than Madame Walker.
    Iterating on the idea

    Some things to iterate on:
    • Increasing / decreasing the radius of the leg motor. I think this would make the steps bigger or smaller. Madame Walker has a radius of three, and I want to try with two. With a radius of 4 (one larger than madame, you run out of space
    • Experimenting with the center of mass. Madame gets stuck sometimes and is a little wobbly. Would more blocks in certain places (like the center?) help? Would a free-hanging mass in the center help keep balance?
    • Experimenting with the height of the legs / location of the swivel. I think a lower swivel would also mean a larger step
    • Trying to add more legs. Working on Madame required larger legs to support the robot but I wonder if the legs could be made smaller and more added. The hexapod did poorly because it didn't get much traction.
    So far I don't see any clear application of this to a level. Maybe if the robot is small enough, some mechanism that blocks the robot from walking over the win, until you unlock it. But even then it might only be able to get in one or two steps, not really showing off the walking ability
     
    Last edited: Jul 2, 2020
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  2. Vicious Circle

    Vicious Circle Member

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    @shultz Honestly I couldn't see the pictures (IMG) you sent
     
  3. nGord

    nGord Standby Administrator, Retired Moderator Staff Member

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    @Vicious Circle - might be a problem on your end. I have no problem with the images on several browsers.
     
  4. mothproof

    mothproof Well-Known Member

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    There was a level back then called Golem by no less than Martin Magni himself, featuring a walking golem. It wasnt so much a walk as it was a plodding. Kinda like Asimo the robot taking its sweet time.

    The Borp looked like one of those monsters Hercules would fight off. :)
     
  5. Pa$ha

    Pa$ha Active Member

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    I whipped up a couple of sketches. It turned out to be a successful model. walks smoothly, does not freeze, does not lose balance, all that is needed for complete happiness. if you try, you can do it on two legs and a smaller size. there would be a desire and time. Do not judge strictly, translated using Google translator, so the meaning may be distorted.
    walking.png
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Jul 4, 2020
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  6. shultz

    shultz Member

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    Wow very cool, I didn't think to abuse the self intersection bug of motors to reduce robot size. his legs are also one less moving part than mine because of the straight up and down guard rails for the leg joint to move through. Thanks for pointing me to this, it's great to see some similar ideas between mine and his (like single motor placed high)

    woah this is great! More stable than Martin's or mine. It's a good looking design too. I'm impressed
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Jul 6, 2020
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  7. Pa$ha

    Pa$ha Active Member

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    Alixon.png

    We're not looking for easy ways.
    Why two legs, if you can walk on one. ;)
    Walks relatively smoothly and does not get stuck.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Jul 9, 2020
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  8. shultz

    shultz Member

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    I would still call this two legs :p but i'm impressed at the succinctness of the mechanism!
     
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  9. Pa$ha

    Pa$ha Active Member

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    what do you say about this monster? Pyatnog.png
     
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  10. Ray Aznable

    Ray Aznable Indonesian Language Helper

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    best robot mechanism so far
    [​IMG]

    @Pa$ha
    and @shultz
    robot mechanism master engineers
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Jul 17, 2020
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  11. EL797

    EL797 Famous Member

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    Pa$ha likes this.
  12. Pa$ha

    Pa$ha Active Member

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    Check out this awesome device:
    Fly Robot.png
    Walking robot 3.png

    If you combine the previous projects, you get a very interesting mechanism. I like to have fun coming up with such mechanisms. the result is in front of you.
    Walking robot 3.5.png
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Jul 21, 2020
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  13. Anomynous

    Anomynous Urdu/Hindi Language Helper

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    :eek::eek::eek:
    Feeling like i am watching Transformers:eek::rotf:

    @shultz your Madam walker is nice:thumbsup:

    But @Pa$ha :eek::eek::eek:dammmmm you are super cool:eek: your all robots are awesome:thumbsup:
     
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  14. Amircreador

    Amircreador Member

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    I want to learn to make mechanisms like giant robots, teleportation and other things, do you teach me?

    someone knows how to make martin magni's golem robot
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Nov 24, 2020
  15. Blue Tower

    Blue Tower Famous Member

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    @Amircreador
    Here's how to make mechanisms of giant robots.

    Step 1, create the first foot of the robot in the ground. Step 2, make a square made out of fences with a hole in the center. Step 3, add a metal pillar with a metal block attached to it. Step 4, add a curved slider rail attached to a motor. Step 5, add two blocks next to the motor. Step 6, attach another curved slider rail above the motor. Step 7, add two slider rails. Step 8, repeat steps 1 - 3 on the other side but start on the step 2 then 3 then 1. Step 9, above the fence square, add some metal pillars at both sides. Step 10, on the two blocks attached by a motor, add a curved slider rail, slider rail and next to the slider rail, another curved slider rail and attach it to a free motor. Step 11, add metal blocks above free motor and add an attached motor. Step 12, add another square made out of fences with a hole in the center and add another metal pillar.

    Like this:
    roby final mech.jpg
    roby mech.png
    roby.png
     
    Last edited: Nov 25, 2020
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  16. Amircreador

    Amircreador Member

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  17. Pa$ha

    Pa$ha Active Member

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    Very interesting design. and impressive gait
     
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  18. Blue Tower

    Blue Tower Famous Member

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    I created a robot crab and - it was successful. Here it is:
    crab.png It's a 3 eyed crab, which it walks smoothly on my device. But, it will make noise.
     
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  19. Pa$ha

    Pa$ha Active Member

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    I like it. I'm not worried about the noise as I always play without sound. good artistic image. I write via google translator, so the words sometimes turn out clumsy.
     
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  20. 97 NinetySeven

    97 NinetySeven Well-Known Member

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    For anyone still following this thread
    This is my attempt at a stable bipedal
    (Although it wasn’t a walk in the park)
    79C3CD73-C0BF-405C-A012-76A5C11C85CB.png
     
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