Software/Hardware
Robotic Cat
For a school project we created a robot which can roughly recreate a cat walking pattern.

About

This is an Arduino based robot I built together with two classmates, the ultimate purpose was to create a robot that could walk like a cat can. In order to achieve this we filmed a cat walking, using a static camera and a couple of reference points. The video was processed with the video measurement module in Coach 7 by CMA Science to create a movement dataset.

This dataset was unreadable by a human so we created a little piece of software that could help us to visualise and tweak the dataset, we also used it to determine the distance between the joints to create the hardware. (this was easier than trying to measure the legs of the cat)

We first made the parts using a 3D printer but quickly determined that this was going to take way to long, especially when the parts had to be altered, therefore we switched to wood. Unfortunately, after we finished putting it together, we found out that the motors weren't strong nor accurate enough to make the robot walk by itself therefore it is held up by a pole. The movement itself is correct and the teachers were impressed by our work so we got 90% for the assignment and research.

Parts

  • ESP32 Dev board
  • SG90 servo's
  • Robotdyn SD module
  • PCA9685 Servo Controller
  • HC-SR04 Ultrasonic sensor
  • NeoPixel compatible LED
  • Pushbutton

Useful links

PWS Document