A new project called MorpHex
This is a project I've been thinking on for a very long time. Shortly explained this is a sphere shaped hexapod that I plan to give the following features:
- Roll freely like a ball
- Have different sort of locomotion for moving in any direction
- Variable inner-body dimensions
- Transform from a sphere shape into a hexapod and vice versa
- Walk like a hexapod
Before I started to make any exact sketches or started building anything, I shared my ideas with my friend Jeroen Janssen (Xan). We talked about this project when I visited him in Netherlands this summer. At first I was thinking of using a fixed sized inner body with 6 x 4 DOF legs, similar to what I used for the T-Hex hexapod. Another problem was finding a sphere shaped material that I could use. Jeroen and I went to a local toy-shop and I just asked him to look for ball-shaped object. After a little while Jeroen had found a globe! At that moment I got the feeling that using a globe could actually work. After a few months and some searching in different book and toy-shop’s I found a 28cm in diameter globe from Toysrus. It was also cheap and the plastic material seemed to be relative solid (about 3mm thick).
I’m cutting out 12 identical sphere parts. Using a simple handsaw and cutting along the lines of the Longitude every 60 deg. The line of equator was made of 1mm thick dark blue plastic band and was very easy to remove, that resulted in a perfect clean edge too! Here are some pictures of the sphere parts:
The map coating was very easy to peel of. The trick was to preheat the surface carefully and then start in one corner and just peel off the whole layer. To the left is the original part. The middle part has the globe/map layer peeled off and the right part is sanded by hand
As you can see the material is very transparent, I do have some future ideas of mounting several LED’s for some cool lighting effects.
Morphing inner-body:
The principle is very simple. I’m using one digital 5645 servo in the centre of the body, the servo holds two delrin gears.
I’m using 7x of the LPA gear sets from Lynxmotion. One gear with SES holes is mounted to each of the 6 outer body sections.
This construction makes it possible to adjust the body dimension by about x2 using only one servo.
The main reason for making the body like this is to hopefully make some more free space for each leg when the robot are in the walking mode. Even with the increased body size the legs are still going to be highly restricted in free motion caused by the large sphere parts, but I think it will work 
I've already done some changes to the body section, like replaced the 1,5 mm aluminium parts used on the 6 outer sections to 2mm for more strength and stability. And also some more stuff like an holder for electronics.
There is still a lot of work left and I'm currently working with assembling all the legs. In total there will be 31 servos, 12* 5990 + 19*5645.
I'll post more info when I'm finished with all the legs and have some photos.
Amazing project, I really look forward to seeing the result!
I do have one asethetic point of disagreement with you, though — you definitely should have left the map on the globe sections, because how cool would it be to have a rolling/morphing/walking globe?
Hi, Thanks for your comment! Actually I do agree on that, I might go for the Globe look again. I’m planning to use several “Starlites” (serial controlled RGB LED’s) inside the sphere for some cool lightning effect, thats the reason for why I’m going for the whit sphere parts.
[...] According to Zenta MorpHex was created to be like a sphere–capable of freely moving in any path–with a diverse type of locomotion for obtaining around. MorpHex was also made to have a variable inner-body dimension (legs fanning in and out). [...]
[...] According to Zenta MorpHex was designed to be like a sphere–capable of freely moving in any direction–with a different type of locomotion for getting around. MorpHex was also designed to have a variable inner-body dimension (legs fanning in and out). [...]
[...] According to Zenta MorpHex was designed to be like a sphere–capable of freely moving in any direction–with a different type of locomotion for getting around. MorpHex was also designed to have a variable inner-body dimension (legs fanning in and out). [...]
[...] According to Zenta MorpHex was designed to be like a sphere–capable of freely moving in any direction–with a different type of locomotion for getting around. MorpHex was also designed to have a variable inner-body dimension (legs fanning in and out). [...]
[...] According to Zenta MorpHex was developed to be like a sphere–capable of freely moving in any path–with a various type of locomotion for obtaining around. MorpHex was also created to have a variable inner-physique dimension (legs fanning in and out). [...]
[...] mid November Kåre Halvorsen, also known as “Zenta” presented a new project, the MorphHex project. A spherical hexapod robot with a crab like movement, that now a few weeks later is ready [...]
[...] MorpHex(комбинация слов «трансформируемый гексапод») [...]
[...] Проект MorpHex (комбинация слов «трансформируемый гексапод») стартовал год назад. Его можно смело отнести к пересечению робототехники и искусства. Устройство, ныне созданное Коре, не находится на передовой технического прогресса, но зато за его движениями занятно наблюдать. [...]
I have to say… of all the things youve done here that are impressive, my favorite hands down is that you started with the sphere (a found object no less) and worked your way from there to the automation. Its visionary… most engineers I know would start at the core working out and not even think about how to get to a sphere shape untill the rest was accomplished. Good Thought!
Thanks for your comment! For me that was the only logic way to start with a sphere. I knew what dimensions to look for and luckily i found a globe that matched.
[...] own TRC Member Zenta has posted an amazing video of his MorpHex Robot. The dream for this project was to ceate a spherical hexapod that [...]