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Introduction

RHex a bio-inspired, hexapedal robot designed for locomotion in rough terrain. It can drive over rocks, mud, sand, snow, and railroad tracks. ARHex adds an arm to this configuration, hence the name..

alt text

illustration of ARHex

This gives robot, the capability to interact and manipulate objects around it. The endeffector can be modified for pick & place, spraying gun, welding torch, camera, etc. Also the arm can be retracted easily into the base; this would be particularly useful when robot topples as it traverses through rough terrain, where the legged robots are usually deployed.

Simulation Video

play

Visit the channel for more videos.

Prerequisites

To run the package you need the following installed and configured.

  • ROS Melodic Morenia
  • Gazebo - 9

Installing

Navigate to ~/catkin_ws/src your catkin_workspace.

Clone the repository

git clone https://github.com/navalab/ARHex.git

And build the catkin_workspace

catkin_make --source src/ARHex

Overlay the current catkin_workspace on top of your environment.

source devel/setup.bash

Load the robot model in Gazebo

roslaunch arhex_gazebo arhex.launch

In another terminal, start the controllers

roslaunch arhex_control arhex_control.launch

to make it walk, in another terminal

rosrun arhex_control arhex_control.py

Progress

  • Model Base and legs
  • Implement simple walking gait
  • Attach arm and endeffector
  • Write hardware_driver

Authors

*I am looking for potential collaborators to make advancements.

License

This project is licensed under the GPLv3 License - see the LICENSE file for details

Acknowledgments

  • Group mates - Rahul, Subrammaniyan and Monish
  • Inspiration from Kod*lab, MiniRhex, etc