[Robotgroup] Divide and Conquer!

[Thelostcircuit]

Hello everyone,

                I had an idea for a project. A sort of divide and conquer 
method of approaching a task. I want to design a 6 leg walking robot with 
the ability to use AI algorithms for object avoidance and things like that. 
However, that is not really, what I wanted to ask an opinion on.

                The ideat was since PIC chips are not that expensive and do 
not take up that much room. Why not divide the work into small tasks. Like 
one chip controlling each leg. The chip responsible for that leg knows how 
to operate the servos and things that move the leg. The chip hooked up to 
the sensors knows how to read the data and convert the data into more 
meaning full numbers and so on. This would leave more cycles for the main 
processor to to the heavy lifting. In addition, it would give you more room 
for more complex programs and algorithms to be performed by the main CPU.

                The only downfall I would think would the platform would 
have to be large enough to accommodate the extra electronics. It would also 
use more energy.

                Just wanted to pass the idea through the group to see what 
all your thought where.

Jon