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TecFoot by David L Buckley - July 2000 |
Document date 15 February 2015 |
TecFoot is an educational Biped Walker designed by David Buckley aimed specifically at the beginner to electronics, robotics and animatronics. The control-board is ready assembled consequently the kit requires no special knowledge of electronics. The TecFoot kit is easy to assemble using a small screwdriver, a pair of pliers and wood-glue.
Tecfoot stands about 63 cms or two feet high and has five servos enabling true biped walking and turning. The control processor is a Basic-Stamp2 from Parallax Inc. however the control-board will fit any of the popular 24 pin microcontrollers with the same pin-out as the Stamp2 including all the 24 pin Parallax modules, the BasicX-24 from Netmedia and the Basic-Atom from Basic-Micro. Power for the servos is supplied by four AA cells and power for the electronics by a 9 volt battery.
The five servos allow independent control of each foot, each leg and the splay angle between the feet. A simple fully documented Basic program is provided which passes messages to two servo-co-processors which take care of pulsing the five servos. The supplied program operates TecFoot in a quasi static balance walking mode but TecFoot is also capable of operating in a dynamic mode swaying quickly from foot to foot as do humans and other animals, in this mode TecFoot walks much faster and the experimenter may choose to explore this way of walking.
Assembly tips
All the parts for the feet laid out for a right foot and a left foot.
Two Soles, two Foot-stiffeners and four Ankle-supports.
1
Glue the main Foot-stiffeners in place on the Soles.
Place the Soles on a
flat surface and make sure the Foot-stiffeners are pushed well down and are
square to the Sole.
2
The completed feet with the Ankle-supports glued in place, make sure they are pushed well down and are square to the Sole.
3
All the parts for the Ankles laid out. These parts are only screwed together, no glue is used.
Left to right - Ankle-side, Ankle-side, Ankle-spacer, Ankle-spacer, Ankle-side, Ankle-side.
The twelve Screws are below.
4
The Ankle-spacers screwed in place through one Ankle-side.
5
The second Ankle-side screwed to the Ankle-spacers
6
Parts for legs laid out, from top to bottom, two Screws, Leg-doubler, Leg,
Leg, Leg-doubler, two Screws.
The four Screws are just used for alignment of
the Leg and Leg-doublers during gluing.
7
Screw two Screws part way through each Leg using the holes marked
A so they project just less than the thickness of the plywood.
Do not
use the end hole in the Leg, that is for the ankle pin.
8
9
Spread glue on a Leg-doubler but be careful not to get glue near these screws (they have to be removed later) and place a Leg onto it, the projecting ends of the screws should go in the holes marked B in the Leg-doubler to align the two parts. Then weight down until the glue dries.
10
Photograph showing a Leg weighted down on top of a Leg-doubler, see side view above.
11
When the glue has dried remove and save the Screws.
Hip-plate parts laid out.
From top to bottom and left to right:-
Hip-top-bearing, Hip-top-bearing, Hip-plate, Hip-plate, Hip-bottom-bearing,
Hip-bearing-plate (disc), Splay-horn, Splay-horn, Hip-bearing-plate (disc),
Hip-bottom-bearing.
12
Use two of the M3 screws (it doesn't matter which ones) and insert them through the holes in the Hip-plates and then glue a Hip-bearing-plate in place on each Hip-plate. The screws are only to align the discs with the plates, make sure the screws are square to the plates, do not get glue near the screws and when the glue has dried remove them and keep them safe.
13
Glue the top and bottom bearings in place as shown. Make sure the
Hip-top-bearing is pushed fully down into its slot and similarly make sure the
Hip-bottom-bearing is pushed all the way into its slot, make sure both bearings
are square to the Hip-plate.
Glue the Splay-horns in place on the front edge
of the Hip-plate making sure they are square with the plate.
(Note the one
in the plate at the bottom of the photograph is out of square! The photographs
were taken with the parts just pushed together, not glued and it moved without
us noticing.)
14
Parts for the Body.
Left to right and top to bottom:- Body-back,
Body-bottom, Splay-plate, Body-side, Body-top, Body-side.
Enhancement - drill 10mm diameter holes at the rear corners of the Body-top plate to take the servo cables, and 16mm diameter holes at the front of the PCB area to take the battery connector cables.
15i
15
Glue a Body-side to the Body-top, making sure it is square.
16
Without using glue assemble the Body-back and other Body-side to the Body-top as shown and mark the position of the Body-back panel where it rests on the Body-top, after marking remove the two parts.
17
Glue in place the Body-back, placing it in the position marked and before the glue is dry, glue in place the remaining Body-side, as above.
18
Make sure the Body-back panel is square to the Body-top and that it lines up as shown below.
19
Now without waiting for the glue to dry glue in place the Body-bottom
20
Make sure the tab on the Body-back panel is fully into the notch in the Body-bottom.
21
After the previous parts are glued leave a little time for everything to dry and then glue in place the Splay-plate.
22
23
If the wire comes as long lengths plan how to cut the various pins and links so you have enough wire, if you cut all the small pieces first then you won't have enough left for all the long pieces. The table suggests how to cut the pieces from full lengths and the drawings show how to make the bends.
Wire Links and Pins - cutting list
The 18swg piano wire normally
comes in 18" lengths (457mm), the following allows all the links to be cut from
four full lengths plus 8" (200mm) .
The Leg-parallel-link is the long thin piece at the top of the photograph.
Insert two Servos into the Leg as shown and fasten in place with M4x10
screws and nuts. The head of the M4 screw should be against the Servo and the
nuts on the plywood.
If you want, lightly rub the face of the disc on the Hip-plate with candle wax or a DRY bar of soap to lubricate the joint, don't worry if you can't do this, TecFoot will still work fine.
24
The other small parts are laid out on the foot. Two Ankle-pins and
Retaining-sleeves, two large diameter 1/8inch washers, two plastic spacers, two
M3 washers, two M3 nuts and the Retaining-sleeve for the Foot-rock-pin. The
Foot-rock-pin itself is in place in the holes in the Ankle-supports.
Note:
the M3 washers are now no longer used and the M3 nuts have been replaced by M3
nyloc nuts which have a nylon insert which prevents the nut working loose.
25
Assemble the Ankle to the Foot by inserting the Foot-rock-pin through the
front Ankle-support, through the hole down the length of the Ankle ( formed by
the groove in the Ankle-spacer) and through the rear Ankle-support, place a
length of the sleeving over the end of the pin to hold it in place.
Place
the Leg and the Leg-parallel-link in the gap in the Ankle and hold in place
using the Ankle-pins and two more lengths of sleeving to hold the pins in place.
View from front looking at outside of ankle.
26
View from rear looking at inside of ankle.
27
Pins were used at the leg-bones/ankle joints because I was worried about wear of the wood from the thread if the pins were machne screws. From later robots, wear of such a joint seems negligible and using screws and locknuts means there are four less things to fall off. To upgrade ankle pivots from the wire pins drill out the holes diameter 3.0mm and replace the pins with M3x16 pan head. Use M3 nylock nuts and nip up then back off 1 turn so the leg 'bones are free to pivot.
27a
27b
Assemble the big washers and the plastic spacers onto the M3x16 and M3x12 screws as shown. Insert the screws through their respective holes in the Leg and Leg-parallel-link and fasten them to the Hip-plate.
28
Note the picture shows the M3 washers and plain nuts but these have now been supercede by the M3 nyloc nuts. Put the M3 nuts on the inside and screw up until the Leg doesn't waggle about but still moves freely.
When the screw comes up to the nylon insert in the nut it will be stiff to turn and you will need to hold the nut with a small spanner or a pair of pliers.
29
Fasten a Servo in place as shown using M4x10 screws and M4 nuts.
30
Photograph shows the Body, two Hip-spacers (little disks), two Hip-pins, and the two leg assemblies.
31
Assemble the Legs to the Body threading the Hip-pins down through the top of
the body, through a Hip-spacer, the top bearing on the Hip, the bottom bearing
on the Hip and through the Body-bottom. Retain the pin in place with a length of
sleeving.
Recomended enhancement [1 March 2008]. Add a 10mm dia 1.5mm (1/16inch) thick plywood
washer between the bottom bearing on the Hip and the Body-bottom. This removes up and
down play at the hip pivot and aides smoother walking.
32
33
For each leg insert the big end of the Leg-tendon through the horn at the
bottom of the Body-side.
The end of the wire should go easily through the
hole in the plywood but then you will have to push a bit to get the corner in
the wire through the hole. Then insert the small end of the tendon through the
Servo-horn as shown.
Recomended enhancement [4 March 2008]. Use the small 'cross' horn with
the wire through one of the holes nearest the boss.
Push the horn onto the Servo shaft but don't yet put in the screw.
34
Insert the small end of the Foot-tendon through the fourth hole from the end
of a long Servo control horn as shown in image 34 and the big end through the
Foot-stiffener, again you will have to push a bit to get the corner through.
Push the Servo horn onto the Servo shaft but don't yet put in the screw.
35
Insert the small ends of the Splay-tendons through an outer pair of opposite holes in a large Servo disc and pass the other ends through the Splay-horns and secure in place with lengths of sleeving, then press the disk onto the Servo shaft, but do not yet put in the screw. (Note, in the section 'Wire Pins and Links' the Splay Links are incorrectly called Sway Links)
36
Fasten the Circuit board to the top of the body using four screws, just screw
in the screws until the board doesn't rattle about, it doesn't have to be tight,
it won't fall off.
Plug in the Servo cables:-
Route the cables through the holes as shown.
37a
If you are going to use extra sensors such as the Parallax Ping Ultrasonic-sensor
then the 9v battery shown will not last long with the extra power required, see the
6xAA battery pack below.
If you decide to use the larger 6AA pack for the electronics then use sticky pads to
stick down the 4AAcell holder in the centre of the back as shown. Central, the mass of
the battery is not offset and it makes it easier to get your fingers to the end AA cell.
38
Otherwise using sticky pads stick down a 9 volt battery and a battery holder for four AA cells on the rear as shown. Alternatively make a support bracket for the 9v battery.
38a
38b
Use a wire tie through the 4mm hole to hold the Servo leads to the Hip-plate.
39
Take off all the Servo discs and horns from the Servo shafts, insert fresh batteries, connect to the PC and load the program TECFOOT.BS2 into the Parallax Stamp editor. At the start of the program section uncomment the line
- 'GOTO manual_setup 'manual test code
GOTO manual_setup 'manual test code
manual_setup: 'edit position values to check stances SCspeed =8 SCservo =2 SEROUT Lrtx\lflow,SCbaud,[SCcmnd,150] 'Lfoot 255=lean, 150=flat(nominal), 0=tip SCservo =1 SEROUT Lrtx\lflow,SCbaud,[SCcmnd,150] 'Lleg 255=fd, 150=mid(nominal), 0=bk SCservo =0 SEROUT Lrtx\lflow,SCbaud,[SCcmnd,127] 'spare SCservo =0 SEROUT Rrtx\rflow,SCbaud,[SCcmnd,150] 'Rfoot 0=lean 150=flat(nominal), 255=tip SCservo =1 SEROUT Rrtx\rflow,SCbaud,[SCcmnd,150] 'Rleg 0=fd, 150=mid(nominal), 255=bk SCservo =2 SEROUT Rrtx\rflow,SCbaud,[SCcmnd,123] 'splay 255=out, 123=mid(so 255 is max splay), 0=in GOTO manual_setupLoad the program into the Stamp2 on TecFoot, it will run the manual_setup: section and all the servos will go to the above positions.
40
Now the discs and horns are on in the right place, edit the mid values so the legs are vertical and the feet are flat and the feet are parallel.
Copy the values into the section
'Servo Positions actual 10uS usRLm CON 150 '0=forward usLLm CON 150 '255=forward usRFm CON 146 '255=down usLFm CON 152 '0=down usFSm CON 123 '255=out more out than in so toes don't bangre-comment
GOTO manual_setup
Re-comment the line GOTO manual_setup
Now 'Dowalk' will be done forever and TecFoot will walk forward.
Adjustment of the values in
leanR DATA RFu,42,LFd,160,z ' leanL DATA LFu,42,RFd,160,z 'may be necessary for best performance.
TECFOOT.BS2 was originally supplied as TECFOOT.BS2.txt in the folder TecFoot_files
and as TECFOOT.BS2 so that if you had modified the .BS2 file and then wished to go
back to the supplied version you could copy the file TECFOOT.BS2.txt and rename it
as TECFOOT.BS2.
From 13Nov07 the file TECFOOT.BS2.txt was removed and the original TECFOOT.BS2 was
renamed TECFOOT1.BS2 and TECFOOT.BS2 was completely rewritten.
To accord with the new software photo36 was flipped left to show the reversal of the
Splay links, splayout is now +ve, whereas before it was -ve.
41
42
43
44
45
47
48 See also photo 55 below.
SP1
49
51
53
Above the 12 way connector is the piggyback board for the PicAxe18x which was added to read the Sharp
GP2Y0A21YK IR distance-sensors.
To the left of the 12 way connector is the piggyback board for the PowerGood resistor and LED.
The plaited Yellow/Red/Black cables go to the GP2Y0A21YK.