Compute-IT

Innovation News

Welcome to post #1 on our new blog, Compute-IT's Innovative News, or InnoNews! Here, we'll talk about brand new technology that people would call 'innovative'. (Get it? Poor joke, sorry.)

We'll be keeping it to one piece of technology per post, and if you have any suggestions for us then please feel free to tell us on our forums at http://forums.compute-it.com/!

The MorpHex - A hexapod that becomes a ball

Sounds cool, hey? No? Well, let us convince you. The MorpHex is a series of robot designs by Norwegian engineer Kare Halvorsen. The current model can transform into a ball, control its roll and lights up to display where it is moving!

The MorpHex MKIII uses 24 LEDs, which means 2 to each section, that flash and change depending on what the robot is doing. Does it sound good now?

Yes, alright, on it's own it isn't that impressive. But this robot can climb over 2 inch tall obstacles and is far smaller than many other robots that have been made (besides robots such as the RoboBee, of course). In situations such as search-and-rescue operations, it will almost certainly be useful getting into locations not normally accessible by humans or from escaping situations.

If that isn't enough, then the military may certainly want to improve on this. Make it a bit bigger and add an automatic weapon and you have a stable support drone that can move around quickly. Make it tank-sized, add a cannon and you'll be facing a terrifying prospect in the future of warfare.

The only problems that have propped up is power and weight. If it's too heavy, then it won't be able to move. A more powerful motor means it can move more, but it will weigh more as well. Halvorsen managed to find a light and powerful enough motor to work, but if this problem translates into our bigger drone ideas, then how can we overcome this?

This IMU, hidden behind the frame, is installed with accelerometers, magnetometers and  gyroscopes, for easier movement measurement.

Besides that, he added a new Inertial Measurement Unit, or IMU, which measures g-force, rotational position and assisting in dynamic orientation calculation. That means it can tell you how much inertia it has and where it's facing. This was a step up from before, where he wasn't able to do much more than turn and move. Now, he can climb over 2" obstacles and turn far more easily than prior.

The LEDs can indicate which direction the robot is moving, which admittedly is pretty good if you want to know whether to run or laugh

Regardless, Halvorsen is comfortable enough with this version of MorpHex to have dubbed it the MorpHex MKIII, simply because he added lights and a better IMU. It's certainly a great achievement, especially when the servo gears broke down prior to the upgrade. He had to take it apart completely just to repair it!

Thank you for reading!

We hope you enjoyed learning about Kare's MorpHex! Check out his website here and don't forget to visit our website as well, if you've just found our blog! If you need any support, feel free to check out our support site here!