Robotis servos - Robocup team's favourites

[limor]

In last week's Robocup humanoid league event in Germany, it seems that most groups have been using or are converging towards the high end Robotis DX117 servos and CM-2 or custom controller boards.

These servos are a bit expensive for the avarage hobbyist but Robocup teams spend so much time and effort in building their robots that overall it saves them the alternative cost of having to develop proprietary electronics using conventional high-torque servos. Here are some of the benefits of using the DX117 servos:

• Control the servos using 1mbit RS485 bus
• Daisy chain the servo, with less wires going towards the controller
• Each servo is programatically addressable
• You can put put extra sensor boards on the same bus
• Capture position and current-usage 100times/sec
• Use position feedback to better control robot and calibrate simulator
• Up to 37kg-cm torque

[Pev]

I have to confess even with my exposure to the lower end Robotis AX-12 servos I am rapidly becoming a convert to serial daisychaining and the huge amount of data available when working with them.

Isn't it fun to be involved at the cutting edge of an emerging technology - hobby robotics is so cool now but has so much potential for the future - I feel like I did when I was 16 and building my computers from bags of components and thats a feeling worth capturing again.

Pev