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Inside Mantis: a 2-Ton Hexapod Robot With a Linux Brain

Posted by timothy on from the but-can-it-get-to-boston-on-one-battery-charge? dept.

DeviceGuru writes "After four years of development, Micromagic Systems has finally completed the Mantis Hexapod Walking Machine (YouTube video), claimed to be the world's largest all-terrain operational hexapod robot. The device stands nearly three meters tall, weighs just under two tons, and is controlled by a PC/104 module stack running embedded Linux."

8 of 84 comments (clear)

  1. Dubstep Warning by locater16 · · Score: 5, Informative

    Warning, obnoxious dubstep sountrack for video. You have been warned.

  2. Horrible video by homb · · Score: 5, Informative

    The video couldn't have been worse, considering how interesting the subject is.
    The videographer should be shot on general principle.

    1. Re:Horrible video by lxs · · Score: 4, Funny

      I think it is intentional. To hide the fact that it's a slow plodding disappointment.

      So far the video has shown:
      -Walking at a snails pace.
      -Feebly kicking over an oil drum.
      -A huge cloud of smoke at the end which is either a pyrotechnic effect to hide the machine or a side effect of that diesel engine blowing up.

      But hey it runs Linux, or so they say.

    2. Re:Horrible video by ByteSlicer · · Score: 5, Informative

      Here's a less "flashy" one, a few months older:
      http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=3sCuse5TZGA

  3. Robot? by theNetImp · · Score: 3, Informative

    So er it has a driver... That makes it not a robot!

  4. Re:OMFG by PopeRatzo · · Score: 5, Funny

    WTF does "unformfortable" mean!?

    It means it cannot be formforted.

    --
    You are welcome on my lawn.
  5. Reminds me of the Timberjack by xarragon · · Score: 5, Informative

    This sort of technology has been available for some time, I remember seeing this six-legged forest machine complete with crane and cutting machinery back in the early 2000s: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYh54Qdh_5g Apprently it was developed in Finland by John Deree, and was only displayed rwecently (2012 press release): http://www.deere.com/wps/dcom/en_US/corporate/our_company/news_and_media/press_releases/2012/forestry/2012apr10_walking_harvester.page

  6. PC/104? ugh. by gmarsh · · Score: 3, Interesting

    From personal experience.

    Never put a PC/104 setup in a system that's going to be subjected to vibration, you'll cause the connector to wear out and eventually one of the important pins on the PC/104 connector will fail. And when it does, the ISA bus presented on the PC104 connector doesn't have any error detection/correction either, meaning your system may not fail gracefully.

    Not something you want in a large robot.