It can skitter about like mad based on phone-sent cues

Sep 30, 2014 15:03 GMT  ·  By

Robots will always be fascinating, at least for the next few generations, so Billy would have probably managed to get attention even if it hadn't been 3D printed.

Still, it says a lot about how useful 3D printing is when it only took 20 days to not just come up with the project, but also go through four prototypes before finally settling on the current version.

The Billy is a hexapod robot created by a man named Jonathan Spitz at the Sensory-Motor Integration Laboratory (SMILE). Since he'd already developed bio-inspired controllers for dynamic walking (it was his PhD project), he decided that he might as well use it.

So he did. He hunkered down and made a little critter that can skitter about on six wheel-like legs. You can control it from your phone or tablet, via Bluetooth.

Speaking of which, the robot is directed by an Arduino Leonard board, whose programming took most of those 20 days we mentioned above.

It should take 24 hours to print all the body parts, but you'll have to buy the Arduino board, as well as a BlueSMiRF Bluetooth module, Motor Driver, DC motors + encoders, and LiPo batteries (3.7V 2000mAh each).

The files aren't available anywhere though, because the robot hasn't reached final stage yet.

The Billy hexapod (4 Images)

The not-so-natural Billy
The Billy robotThe Billy robot and its creator
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