Making a Smarter Hexapod: Roboticist Matt Bunting on fit-PCs
via: IntelFreePress: "Modern Day Da Vinci Designs Smart Spider"
Early on, Bunting said he wanted all of the processing to be done onboard, controlling all of the 21 motors, and processing vision with advanced machine learning techniques. Each of the six legs would be powered by three servos, or smart motors, and three more would control the camera.
“I needed something that was very powerful,” he said. “I also wanted something that would eventually run on batteries, so it needed to be powerful and computationally efficient at the same time. Fortunately, CompuLab came out with the Fit PC right around that time, so I ordered one of those and it has an onboard Intel Atom processor (running at 1.6 GHz). It could handle vision processing seamlessly along with all of the kinematic equations to operate all of the motors.”
More on Matt Bunting:
Popular Mechanics: "Roboticist: This is My Job"
RobotShop.com: "The Story of Matt Bunting and the Hexapod that Intel Bought"
Matt Bunting's: youtube channel, website