Flik was my first walking robot and is built entirely of Lego. It was a hexapod Lego robot designed to mimic the gait of an ant and uses 8 motors and
two Mindstorms RCX units to allow independent control of the articulated
segments.
The robot had to utilize two RCX controllers since the design requires 4 motor channels in order to let Flik turn while walking. One RCX unit acts as a master, the
other a slave and they talk to each other using the Minstorms IR protocol. The slave sends a signal to the master when the antennae touch sensors hit
an object, and the master unit processes that signal and sends leg movement commands back to the slave to make Flik reverse, turn away from the
obstruction and continue forward.
Flik was 100% Lego and was the first of my robots to utilize locking linkages in the legs so it could hold itself up against gravity
without energizing the motors.
