I need some guidance for a somewhat out of my range of skills project. I would like to build a robot with legs and lower anatomy that can mimic the movement of ice skaters. I know I would need a decent amount of servo motors and wheels that can turn on multiple axes. If it helps at all I was looking into mounting the humanoid robots onto hacked RC cars to create the proper movement/momentum. I'm looking to mimic three specific moves: the forward swizzle (- YouTube), forward gliding (- YouTube), and maybe a spin (- YouTube). Each of these robots would only be able to do one type of motion, creating at least three in total. Any ideas on what type of parts/how many of each part I would need? The robots will also eventually have to be equipped with (infrared?) sensors for obstacle avoidance.
Hopefully the skates will be large enough to balance them on the surface. This is possibly for an art installation, but not 100% sure yet. Also as for obstacle avoidance--yes, the robots should be able to avoid obstacles such as walls, people, and other objects in the room.
For an art installation you make it a 4-wheeled robot with one extra axis of movement to open and close the legs. Think of the body as a lightweight structure on top of the real robot.
Well, most pre-built kits assume that the left and right wheels are attached to the same chassis. I would actually consider buying two kits and make it more like 4-wheel rollerskates.
Look for something that can steer the rear wheels as well as the front. Some of those skating manouvers are going to look better if the back wheels are helping to make the turn or glide.
Not 4-wheel drive. 4-wheel steering. These may be rare as off-the-shelf kits. You may need to hack the front end off two to make one skate. (4 in total - this is looking expensive - maybe find something you can modify.)
It would need at least 1 accelerometer and 1 motor, likely more of both. Power required would jump, the bot would have to be strong enough to keep itself up.