RoboSavvy Forum

HR-17 Shogun Info

2008-11-18T21:10:34+01:00

Below are my first impressions of the Shogun. I was wondering what other people thought about it? I know that this is a little late but better late than never.
Because I have only seen the first two prototypes of the Robofactors Shogun, my initial analysis is somewhat limited. However, the idea behind the robot seems sensible: take the best features of the Robonova-1, KHR-2V and Bioloid and combine them. The Shogun features: all metal brackets, Atmel AtMega 128 controller, Digital Servos with 14kg/cm of torque and 60 degrees transit time of 0.2 seconds. Furthermore, it will be programmable in C with a servo play and capture similar to the RoboNova . The Shogun is made in China for RoboFactors and the software development is being done in the US and Canada. Moreover, the price is acceptable at approximately $800 hundred for the kit.
The big question I have with the Shogun is how will Robofactors follow up on a promising prototype? On the surface, they have several good ideas on future add-ons for the robot. For example, a PS/2 remote control for the robot as well as grippers. Another concern I have has to do with programmability. I need to see more of the robot's programming interface and how easy it will be to program in C. One other item of note: at this time there are little or no canned moves for the robot. While not necessary for experienced robot builders, a large library of canned moves will be helpful to someone who is new to robotics.
The Robofactors website has a forum that will help beginners. It may be best for first time robot builders to wait until more experienced builders have assembled the robot and found any issues that it may have. Once the issues are posted to this forum, Robofactors can resolve them. Furthermore, I would like to see RoboSavvy sell the Shogun and add it as a forum topic on its site as well. That addition will provide more information about the robot and will jumpstart the interest in buying and further modifying it.
If you do not have a robot the Shogun is probably a better option than the Robonova or Bioloid kit. However, if you already have a robot, it would be best to wait until the Shogun is ready for prime time. To that end, Robofactors will be at the 2nd Annual Hitec Cup in March. That event will be a great test for this new robot and a great way for interested parties to compare it to other known robots with known capabilities. I will be at the event as well and will gladly post an updated review afterwards. Until then, it is my sincere hope that RoboFactors will continue developing this promising new robot.

Statistics: Posted by Gort — Tue Nov 18, 2008 9:10 pm

Videos of Shogun in action.

2008-10-26T19:19:39+01:00

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Statistics: Posted by Gort — Sun Oct 26, 2008 7:19 pm

HR-17 Shogun Info

2008-10-21T00:11:17+01:00

I was pretty impressed with this bot. It's the result of someone re-engineering a Kondo style robot for more durability and power.

No plastic brackets, LiPo batteries out of the box, stronger matal-gear digital servos, and from what I saw much more streamlined software. All the hardware, software and documentation is being designed and developed in the US.

We saw one of them run too far and go off the table where it fell about 5 feet onto solid concrete. Picked it up and set it back on the table, still running like a champ.

Here's their site: http://www.robofactors.com/index.php

Statistics: Posted by Tyberius — Tue Oct 21, 2008 12:11 am

HR-17 Shogun Info

2008-10-21T05:16:18+01:00

While at iHobby 2008 a few days ago, I took a few pictures and video of RoboFactor's new HR-17 Shogun Humanoid robot!

Specs from the Robofactor website:

- 17 Degrees of Freedom
- RF-14HT 195 oz/in (14 kg/cm) 7.4V Servos
- High Strength, Lightweight Aluminum Alloy Construction
- 1100 mAh Lithium Polymer long life battery
- Multiple Software Environments (GUI, Scripting, C)
- Wireless Remote Control

RoboFactor's founder, Marc, says that (with some luck) they are looking at a release date in the first week of December 2008 with the retail price of $795 USD.

Videos coming as soon as I can figure out the camera and get them uploaded!

Edit ---

I just figured out how to transfer video from my camera to Adobe Premier Elements 3. The issue was that I needed to buy a FireWire, and change the capture setting in PE from HD to HDW. It is 11:11 PM (night time) here so I will work again on this tomorrow.

Statistics: Posted by srobot — Mon Oct 20, 2008 11:51 pm