The SmallKat project is a 16 DOF Open Source, 3D printed quadrupedal platform designed and made by Xavier Little along with framework code prepared by Kevin Harrington.

The intention of the platform was to make a fully Open Source Dynamics quadruped for the education/research and high-end toy markets. Using hobby servos and common electronics allows the repairability of the device to remain high in comparison to its competitors.

The combination of the controls software, BowlerStudio and the electronics make this platform uniquely capable. The controls electronics consists of a single ESP32, 16 servos, 3 switch mode BEC's and a BNO055 IMU. This platform streams sensor data up, and servo positions down, using the WiFi built into the ESP32. This configuration is easy to develop for because the code kinematics/walking gait code runs on a nearby PC. Kinematics and walking gait/body controllers can be swapped out on-the-fly without restarting SmallKats controller making development fast. Once algorithms are finalized and published to Git, they can be loaded by the second configuration and run in a tight real-time loop with the hardware.

Main Features

• 16 DOF quadraped walking platform

• IMU with integrated Dynamics controller

• Perturbance compensation built in

• Easy to repair

• BowlerStudio models for simulation

Instructions:

SmallKat is full setup instructions

Detailed assembly instructions

Servo Pin Map

Programming reference

Educational Materials

Lesson Plan

Recorded lectures

Results from the first run of the class

System Documentation

Source Code