Leap Motion controller used to control robotic hexapod Aug 5th 2013, 13:59
The Leap Motion controller is a motion sensing system intended to act as a fully three-dimensional input mechanism. It can follow gestures in real time, then translate them on to a screen, but that's just the start. While initial impressions of the device have been a little lukewarm, that doesn't mean it's dead in the water. In fact, it can be used to control a robotic hexapod with very little setup, and nothing that can control a robotic hexapod can be a failure. Nothing.
A fellow by the name of Queron Williams was testing out his new Leap Motion controller when he realized there was a huge processing library available for it on GitHub. It turns out his robotic hexapod (which we all have) was running a compatible control program. From there is was a simple matter to link the two up.
It's still a work in progress, but Williams has managed to map the Leap input to the x, y, z, yaw, pitch & roll of the hexapod robot. So you can place your hand above the controller and move it around to have the robot mimic your movements. The hexapod itself carries a Raspberry Pi on its back to catch the Leap signals via TCP/IP and relays the values to the leg servos.
It was reportedly fairly simple to get this implementation up and running, but his next step is to get the controller to recognize two hands so the robot's front legs can be manipulated independently. Surely walking and terrifying pets can't be far off.
Now read: Spider Tank Mark 6 robot kit crawls on to Kickstarter
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