RoboSavvy Forum

RoboSavvy R&D • Reverse engineering + control of mini self-balacing scooter

2015-08-13T18:19:13+01:00

Here at Robosavvy we really enjoy making self-balancing robots.
Robots like our human greeting robot Rickie and Ali's gaming sidekick, FRHANK were two awesome projects where we had much fun developing.

Recently we came across a mini segway/scooter that seemed as a great starting point for a more affordable self-balacing robotic platform. Video

We just received one on our Lab!
IMG_20150813_173100.jpg
In the next weeks we'll take a closer look at it and reverse engineer all the electronics. Then we'll develop our own main board and control algorithms. How much we use from the original device and how much we are throwing to the trash will depend on its design.

We'll start by understanding the role of the three boards, each one with its own ARM MCU, how they communicate and how the motors are controlled and driven.

Here are some photos of the disassembly.
IMG_20150813_173716.jpg
IMG_20150813_173551.jpg
IMG_20150813_173523.jpg
IMG_20150813_173523.jpg
IMG_20150813_173336.jpg
IMG_20150813_173153.jpg
We'll keep you guys posted and share all the details.

Statistics: Posted by vmatos — Thu Aug 13, 2015 6:19 pm

RoboSavvy R&D • Robosavvy termocouple tester

2015-08-04T12:12:45+01:00

Robosavvy developed a board to test the thermocouples we use on the MM2X kit.
We used spare parts of malfunctioning boards and built this prototype.
It consists of an Arduino Uno, 2x K-Thermocouple-to-Digital-Converter, a heater transistor driver and a touchscreen LCD.
We start by heating the extruder part and sensing it with the thermocouple module. One of the thermocouples will serve as reference and the other will be under test. Using a closed loop control we stabilize the temperature of the reference thermocouple and check if the second thermocouple will behave equally.

Statistics: Posted by andrefleitao — Tue Aug 04, 2015 12:12 pm

RoboSavvy R&D • Re: Robobuilder Linuxified - adding an embedded linux board

2015-07-31T19:41:42+01:00

For anyone interested in using a Raspberry Pi with robobuilder - see this post:

viewtopic.php?p=43579#43579

Statistics: Posted by l3v3rz — Fri Jul 31, 2015 7:41 pm

RoboSavvy R&D • The Making Of FRHANK - meat snack dispensing humanoid robot

2015-04-21T19:39:01+01:00

You may have seen already some previous announcement about this.
Now that the Ali-A campaign is formally over, we can talk about how this project came about and how FRHANK was created.

phpBB [media]

more info here
http://robosavvy.com/store/services-9/f ... ified.html

Statistics: Posted by limor — Tue Apr 21, 2015 7:39 pm

RoboSavvy R&D • Re: Robosavvy debuts 3D printed Segway-riding robot

2015-04-16T17:00:35+01:00

The robot is currently in Germany's Hanover faire at the Infosys stand meeting and greeting people.
It is currently doing face recognition and welcoming people to the stand.
It has an on-board i7 computer, 30+ Robotis servos, Segway style platform, oculus rift link to his head stereo cameras.
He can read badges and recognized and categorize faces..

http://www.flickr.com/photos/robosavvy/sets/72157651922178795

Statistics: Posted by limor — Thu Apr 16, 2015 5:00 pm

RoboSavvy R&D • Re: Robosavvy debuts 3D printed Segway-riding robot

2015-03-19T12:02:23+01:00

Hey Limor!!

Build info??? Got some sort of log somewhere? Hardware, control system, software? Haven't seen anything on the Asimo thread in a while...

Take Care,
Paul

Statistics: Posted by PaulL — Thu Mar 19, 2015 12:02 pm

RoboSavvy R&D • Robosavvy debuts 3D printed Segway-riding robot

2015-03-10T15:04:39+01:00

http://www.3ders.org/articles/20150310- ... elona.html

Statistics: Posted by limor — Tue Mar 10, 2015 3:04 pm

RoboSavvy R&D • Re: Personal Robot

2015-01-09T21:59:15+01:00

Really nice campaign. You must have put a lot of effort into the robot.
There's quite a lot of promise in the advertised Jibo style Android based speech to text and then text analysis and interfacing with various 3rd party systems.

Statistics: Posted by limor — Fri Jan 09, 2015 9:59 pm

RoboSavvy R&D • Personal Robot

2015-01-09T07:06:52+01:00

Hi everyone,
We are a team of robotics engineers keen on putting a robot in every home. We thought that you may be interested in our Personal Robot campaign: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/403524037/personal-robot?ref=card

If you're at CES, please visit our booth to see the product. We're located at Eureka Park, TechCrunch Booth, Level 2, Sands Expo, Booth 75468.

Thanks!
Thanh & The Robotbase Team

Statistics: Posted by nhanconan030789 — Fri Jan 09, 2015 7:06 am

RoboSavvy R&D • Re: Building humanoid similar to Asimo and Qrio

2013-12-12T19:13:20+01:00

I've been invited yesterday to Fox News studio tonight (MONEY with Melissa Francis) with Franky the 3D printed humanoid and Fonzie the twerking robot and to talk about the future of robotics.

http://video.foxbusiness.com/v/2925308335001

foxnews-limor-franky.png

Statistics: Posted by limor — Thu Dec 12, 2013 7:13 pm

RoboSavvy R&D • Re: Building humanoid similar to Asimo and Qrio

2013-10-25T07:48:25+01:00

Any progress? It's been two months since the last post...

Statistics: Posted by patkangu — Fri Oct 25, 2013 7:48 am

RoboSavvy R&D • Updates (cont.)

2013-08-27T17:27:02+01:00

We have instaled one low cost optical encoder inside the motor. This is how the signal looks like at 92 rpm:

We intend to add 3 more so we can achieve a resolution around 1200 counts per revolution. This will allow us to do a precise speed control at low speeds.
Other approaches were made:
1. Magnetic encoder inside the motor using hall effect sensor plus the original encoder magnet;
2. Optical encoder mounted on the wheel;

- Option 1 resulted in a very inconstant signal, probably due to interference of the motor magnetic field;
- Option 2 worked but was not the most robust alternative since any oscillations or dust in the sensor would result in bad performance. Also had a limited resolution;

This is the analog comparator circuit used for the encoder:

About the software...
A Kalman filter was implemented to filter and combine information from the gyro and the accelerometer to obtain a good angle estimation.
The first approach used to achieve balance was a PID controller based on a static equilibrium angle and the current angle. This was a very limited approach since
any change on the center of mass would cause the robot to fall, but this first simple step was fundamental to see the controller behavior on the easiest case.

So far, this is how it behaves:

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A more general algorithm is currently being developed, so the robot can learn by himself the equilibrium angle.

Statistics: Posted by Cláudio Brito — Tue Aug 27, 2013 5:27 pm

RoboSavvy R&D • Updates

2013-08-27T17:27:42+01:00

Electronics and 2nd floor added.We are using an arduino mega as microcontroller plus additional electronics such as motor driver, accelerometer and gyroscope.

Statistics: Posted by Cláudio Brito — Mon Aug 26, 2013 4:13 pm

RoboSavvy R&D •

2013-08-24T05:29:23+01:00

Any Progress ? Any Video of Walking ?

Statistics: Posted by MOHIT JINDAL — Sat Aug 24, 2013 5:29 am

RoboSavvy R&D •

2013-08-19T10:33:37+01:00

Hi

Will secure it to the end of a broom stick and try it out next time I have a itch on my back

I did try old-school fishing line (nylon) but I found it to be very stretchy, stiff to bend and not very resistant to abrasion. Also next to impossible to tie small knots.

These new synthetic braided fishing lines seem much better. Stronger for the same diameter and better in all the mentioned aspects.

Abrasion resistance is quite good. Even going over sharp edges in PLA (which is quite hard) I can barely see any signs of use, after almost 100k cycles.

Definitely the way to go for us.

Also of note, after already decided on this I saw that Shadow Hand uses the same kind of wires, albeit thicker.

Rgds

Statistics: Posted by MarcoP — Mon Aug 19, 2013 10:33 am