rtems on a robot

[Vivek Vaid]

Hi, 

This link has the pic of the 6 legged robot (with me) which walks under
control of rtems.
http://www.ee.iitb.ac.in/uma/~vaid/wm1/walkingme.jpg

Im sorry for the late reply. was stuck in exams & academics. :((

For those who have forgot what im talking about. this is just an info
mail (appended to the previous one below) about a 6 legged walking robot.

The details are as follows:

* The 486 board inside the robot remote-boots with an rtems image
  (ne2000 card with netboot)

* The rtems code carries a simple telnet server & the control loop. This 
  allows me to give commands to the servo loops (threads) from my pc.

* The network thread is an rtems thread (netdemo code) and the other
  control thread is posix. This single thread does the servoing of all 18
  motors. (3 degree of freedom per leg).

* The hardware (isa slot cards) in the 486 are custom designed, so there
  was no need to make a driver. I just output and input bytes to
  io-addresses. (the motor drivers are also custom made in our lab, one is
  visible in the pic)  	

* The weight of the robot is 300kg, and i have only tested it to walk with
  80Kg payload. 12 of 18 motors are 1 hp. Power supply is ofcourse not on
  the robot.

* The code currently is very crude in terms of user interface. a wrong
  key press while its walking may make the monster kick or
  topple!! next im going to make the gui, and safety features so that
  people other than me can operate it :)) 


regards,
Vivek




On Wed, 6 Feb 2002, Joel Sherrill wrote:

> Very cool.  Is there a url or pictures yet?
> 
> --joel
> 
> Vivek Vaid wrote:
> > 
> > (sorry if you get it twice. I guess it did not reach the list last time i
> > sent due to dns err.)
> > 
> > Hi,
> > 
> > Well, I'd like to inform you all, that I have used rtems to control a
> > Six Legged Walking robot which is being built in our lab.
> > 
> > Each leg has 3 dof.
> > The robot stands 6 feet tall, and weighs about 300Kg.
> > 12 out of 18 motors are 1 hp motors..
> > 
> > rtems resides in a 486 industrial motherboard, which remote-boots, and
> > allows high level commands to flow in from the network
> > (the code is based on netdemo)
> > 
> > Just finished the first basic code which runs all 18 axis simultaneously.
> > 
> > Regards,
> > Vivek
> 
> 

--------------------------------------------------------------------
Vivek Vaid

Research Associate
Robotics Lab, 
Dept. of Mechanical Engineering

M. Tech. Student
Dept. of Electrical Engineering
   
Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay
--------------------------------------------------------------------


"To develop working ideas efficiently, I try to fail as fast
 as I can."
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