YouTubers are known for their larger-than-life persona and over-the-top shenanigans. And this time, content creator Hacksmith Industries just created something unprecedented and unexpected in the form of a robot called Megahex.
The YouTubers posted how they built this ambitious project and claimed that it is the largest hexapod rideable robot in the world.
Building the Spider Robot
As reported first by Interesting Engineering, the massive robot was supposed to be built in just three months. But odd turns from now and then prompted the content creators to extend it to a year and a half. They were met with many trials and errors along the way just to breathe life into the project.
They originally intended to release a trilogy depicting the inner workings and behind-the-scenes of the project just to indicate how long the process was. However, they ultimately decided to condense a year and a half worth of building into one video.
The ambitious project was born when one of the team chanced upon a princess auto excavator that could stand up and move on its own with its bucket.
The team member then wondered what would prevent additional legs from carrying a larger body. At that point, he realized a six-legged princess auto excavator could be constructed to create a rideable robot that resembled a spider.
The project's first month proceeded according to schedule. Princess Auto, the team's partner, offered six excavators as well as an in-store shopping budget.
Assembling the Legs
The original plan called for a rectangle with six connected legs that could all do the same motion. However, this was not feasible so the crew ultimately decided on a hexagonal frame.
But at the same time, altering the framework presented several roadblocks for the YouTubers.
The motion of each leg had to be distinct, and the joints and angles had to be extremely accurate as well.
When the YouTubers reached the constructing stage, things went a little south for them. The legs could not stand in their places on the hexagonal frame since they were not the right length.
But fortunately, the succeeding leg assembly went quite well, and the YouTubers were able to see what the finished product looked like.
The team was growing more and more thrilled as it became clear that it was a large robot.
The YouTubers had a lot more challenges to face, all of which were described in their video, but they eventually succeeded in creating a massive robot that could move with six legs.
Every Failure Was Content
"The biggest challenge in this project was integrating and tuning our system, because big hydraulics, heavy frames, and tons of sensors have a lot of variability that needs to be checked. We used an open-source hexapod library to control how it walks, which has been used on much smaller hexarobots, and works great. Once the mechanical system is more reliable, it will be able to walk easily," Hacksmith Industries wrote in the comment section of their video.
The team said that the project should not have happened because of its complexities. But they still managed to continue pursuing it because they were inspired by their fans.
"Every one of these failures was content. It was going to teach us something, it was going to teach you something. And we really hope that comes across on video."
