This thesis presents the development of a six-legged robot prototype integrating mechanical fabrication, electronics, and software control. We adapted an
existing 3D model to house the control and power electronics, battery, sensing
components, and a launching mechanism, and produced its parts by 3D
printing. The prototype uses an ESP32-S3 development board, two PCA9685
controllers, and 18 servo motors to actuate six three-degree-of-freedom legs.
The software includes coordinate transformations, inverse kinematics, foot
trajectory planning, and a ripple gait. For target detection, we mounted an
external camera above the test area, calibrated it with a ChArUco board,
and developed an AprilTag detection program. It determines the launcher
and target directions and the three-dimensional distance between the marker
centres. The angular data and distance are sent to the development board
in an HTTP request. Once the user starts the preparation sequence, the
development board performs horizontal alignment, sets the tube using the
nearest calibrated elevation setting based on the distance, and cocks the
mechanism at level P2. Firing requires an explicit user command.
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