BillyBilly, the blue beetle and Charlie, the cricket, 3D printed hexapod robots, Jonathan Spitz, Haifa, Israel

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Author - Jonathan Spitz

facebook.com/Billybluebeetle

Billy was inspired by STAR, developed at UC Berkeley

 

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"Billy's new friend: Charlie, the cricket"

by Jonathan Spitz
January 15, 2015

Article "Designer Builds Cute Little 3D-Printed Robots, You Know For Kids"

by Jordan Crook
January 15, 2015

 

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3D printed hexapod robot

Published on Sep 24, 2014

Billy, the blue beetle is a proof-of-concept 3D printed hexapod robot. After 20 days of rapid prototyping it can already walk and climb obstacles.

Billy's components include:
1 Arduino Leonardo
1 Motor Driver
1 BlueSMiRF bluetooth module
2 LiPo batteries (3.7V 2000mAh each)
2 DC motors + encoders
A bunch of screws and 3D printed parts

Billy can be controlled from a smartphone via Bluetooth, and has 2 different sets of legs: straight ones (shown being printed) or spiral ones (shown on Billy).

 

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Spooky Halloween from Billy

Published on Oct 30, 2014

Billy dressed up as "Villy, the vampire" to wish everyone a spooky Halloween!

Would you like to go trick-or-treating with Villy?

 

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Billy's "world" tour video

Published on Nov 14, 2014

Billy was walking all over the world! The tour included Haifa, San Francisco, New York City, Buenos Aires and Mendoza.

Unfortunately United Airlines sent Billy's bag to Rostov, Russia! Then he was sent back to TLV, all the way to SFO and back to NYC where we finally re-United just in time to catch the flight to Argentina.

Since he didn't actually get to walk in San Francisco or NYC, I prepared a "virtual" walk for Billy.

 

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Billy's abilities

Published on Nov 24, 2014

Billy was walking around the office and showing off!
He can climb slopes of over 30 degrees and walk over obstacles half his height }

 

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Charlie, the cricket

Published on Jan 13, 2015

Charlie is a 3D printed hexapod robot that you can control with your smartphone. He is an advanced prototype based on my previous experience with Billy, the blue beetle.

Charlie can climb obstacles about as tall as himself and walk on slopes larger than 45 degrees! Plus, he's absolutely adorable

Charlie's brain is an arduino micro which receives commands from the Bluetooth module. The arduino relays the signals to two "baby orangutan" microprocessors that control Charlie's motors. Two motors are used for walking and two more for sprawling (rotating the legs sideways).