In late 2019, I designed a custom QDD gearbox. Then I designed a bipedal robot with said gearing. By early 2020 I was spending about an hour per day after work coding a controller for the bipedal robot I had designed. In that time I learned a great deal of Python, and my controls proficiency skyrocketed. Then I started grad school and had to put this project on hold for about six months. But now, over a year and a half later, I’ve finally achieved stable bipedal walking in simulation.
Of course, as the saying goes, simulations are doomed to succeed. Successfully transferring Python code controlling a simulated robot to an embedded real-time controller running on a real robot is a monumental task on its own–just ask Gerardo Bledt. In addition, I’ve been dealing with some sort of Bullet physics bug that causes the robot to fly into outer space, which is impeding further progress on the sim. I may have to switch to another simulator, such as RaiSim.
And another thing: I’m not entirely satisfied with Spryped’s design. I believe many improvements can be made.