Some Feedback on the New Look

A tribute to Brian Dean's Servo Mojo Eval Board
Keith Rowell Design

Excellent! Careful ... that's tempting to put up on my web page :-)
BTW, I like your new "head" design a lot better than the original.
Looks clean and modern. You ought to turn this into a product once
you get it fab'd. A kit would be great. I know I'd buy one as long
as it was affordable.
Great work!
-Brian

Hey Keith!

Looks like you are making great progress! Are you machining the parts yourself or are you using a fab shop? I have been thinking about getting a table top mill to do things like that, but it's hard to justify the cost. The lateral joints at the knees are interesting. Are there also lateral joints at the hips? About the batteries in the head. You are correct - the high center of gravity requires less shift left or right to balance the robot over a foot. I haven't done any formal calculations, but I think that the higher center of gravity would also improve the efficiency of the walk. A biped with a low center of gravity will need to "waddle" back and forth more to shift the CG over a foot. The overall result is that the body of the robot travels in a zig-zag as it walks forward. With a higher CG, the robot waddles less and the body travels in more of a straight line. The distance between the hips will have a similar effect - the farther apart the legs are for a given height, the more the robot will have to waddle to shift the CG over a foot.

Please keep me informed of your progress!

Later,

Mike