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“We’ve designed an obstacle-avoiding, mood-displaying hexapod robot. This robot utilizes 12 servo-powered joints to walk on six legs in a spider-like fashion. During its normal walking pattern, Hexapod avoids obstacles in the forward direction via an ultrasonic sensor calibrated to detect objects 20” away. To mimic spider walking patterns, we programmed Hexapod to back up in a randomly decided left or right direction in the presence of an obstacle. Finally, to include the ability to communicate the state of obstacle detection with a user, Hexapod includes an 8x8 LED display to create a mood-dependent face that increases in happiness with the time elapsed since an obstacle was last detected.”

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