Bipedal Robot Duck

I designed and built a bipedal duck robot with the goal of achieving stable walking within a single semester. The project focuses on modular mechanical design, rapid prototyping, and integrating control strategies such as sinusoidal gait generation. It has been a hands-on exploration of full-system robotics, combining mechanical design, simulation, and control.

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This robot was designed to be symmetric with a low center of mass directly over the feet, which in turn are overly large to maximize contact with the ground, increasing stability. The 3 DOF legs are modeled after bird legs, for the exploration of reverse knee stability. In the initial design, the wings were going to be weighted at the ends, allowing for the center of mass to be shifted without hip or ankle roll. This will significantly contribute to stable walking and is planned for the next iteration.

In addition to these design considerations, every facet of the robot was designed to be easy to dissemble and replace. Motor and electronic mounts had 4 (on average) points of connection and special attention was paid to the screw placement and wire placement, ensuring ease of access regardless of joint orientation. The robot was designed for rapid prototyping and iteration, as well as to facilitate troubleshooting.