As humans, we can balance and walk on two legs. While this may seem simple, if you’ve seen a baby struggling to get the hang of it, or if you’ve tried to create your own balancing robot, it becomes obvious that this is actually an incredible feat. So much is going on here controls-wise that it’s very difficult to get a robot to duplicate this task.
On the other hand, if you kept the center of gravity inside of a single foot’s boundaries when on one leg, you could forgo the need to balance in the traditional sense altogether.
That’s the concept behind the Otto DIY kit, which uses four servos to actuate a pair of stubby legs and gigantic feet, and uses an ultrasound sensor to avoid obstacles. While it won’t be the fastest or most agile robot at the local hackerspace, it can exhibit some impressive dance moves as shown below:
If this looks familiar, Otto isn’t the only robot to take advantage of this type of locomotion. For example, the Arduped has a more minimal body design, and its three-toed green feet look decidedly awesome. You should also check out BoB the BiPed, which inspired this design and features an array of LEDs as a mouth.
