Multi-Pedal Walking Robot

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This was a group project completed in the third year of my BSc in Electromechanical Engineering at the University of Cape Town, as part of a course in mechatronics design. 

The initial aim of the project was to design an autonomous multipedal walking robot capable of line following and straight line running. With the initial aim of the project successfully completed, the project was then furthered by designing an attachable automatically reloading ping-pong ball launcher. The project culminated in a competition whereby the robots had to follow a black line until reaching a black box, at which point, the ping pong balls where to be launched.  This robot successfully completed the task and won the competition. 

During this project, I was the chief mechanical designer and chose to design a walking mechanism based on Theo Jansen's famous Strandbeest. The project had a number of challenging constraint such as dimensional constraints, restricting the robots overall dimensions to less than 100x100x150 mm. Additionally, the entire project was allocated a budget of only $10 and only three brushed DC motors where to be used for both walking and ball launching.  

Please scroll down to view a project video, CAD renders and designs, and project photographs. 

Project Duration: February 2015 - October 2015