RoboSavvy Forum

MicroRaptor Begins

2007-02-16T22:42:04+01:00

Great work Jon,

Very impressed ... Currently, i'm trying to make an interface that can serve on graphically building a "logic" that is aimed to reproduce a natural comportment on a structure builded with elements provided with the bioloid kit.
Don't know if it's clear, but working on it ...

Arnaud BUY.

Statistics: Posted by ArnaudBuy — Fri Feb 16, 2007 10:42 pm

MicroRaptor Begins

2007-02-09T19:01:05+01:00

Very impressive progress you're making already Jon! It won't be long before your beast will be tearing off the limbs of Robo-One robots! Just make sure you lock its cage, okay?

Statistics: Posted by DerekZahn — Fri Feb 09, 2007 7:01 pm

MicroRaptor Begins

2007-02-09T13:51:25+01:00

Well, your wait is over - I made a new walk sequence, using the same step sequences, but running twice as fast.

Actually, given your post time, you may have already seen them, since I put them up about 25 minutes ago.

Using the tools I have built, its actually not that hard. I basically specify a few static poses (think of them as keyframes), and the software interpolates between them to run the sequence over a specified period of time.

Two new movies up...

http://www.bioloid.info/tiki/tiki-index.php?page=MicroRaptor+Movies

- Jon

Statistics: Posted by JonHylands — Fri Feb 09, 2007 1:51 pm

MicroRaptor Begins

2007-02-09T13:45:55+01:00

Wow - very impressive. The gait works womderfully - must have taken you some time to do.

Cant wait till the next vid.

Statistics: Posted by BillB — Fri Feb 09, 2007 1:45 pm

MicroRaptor Begins

2007-02-08T16:42:55+01:00

Yeah, I spent a lot of time looking at biped walking gaits before I started this, and I wasn't impressed. They all slide the feet forwards and backwards, which means the body has to sway a significant amount.

My goal with MicroRaptor is for the body to be moving vertically while walking (like people do), with virtually no side sway.

You need decently wide hips for that, with long enough legs that you can do the cross-over gait. I haven't machined the proper chassis for MicroRaptor yet, but this one (the CM-5 box) puts the servos 86mm apart, and the finished chassis will put them 88mm apart, so it is almost exactly the correct geometry.

- Jon

Statistics: Posted by JonHylands — Thu Feb 08, 2007 4:42 pm

MicroRaptor Begins

2007-02-08T16:13:16+01:00

Wow, nice gait. Interesting way that you have almost centered the feet and have them overlapping, with the counter balance on the tail.Very cool, and looks like a gait like that would potentially keep the cameras very stable.

Pev

Statistics: Posted by Pev — Thu Feb 08, 2007 4:13 pm

MicroRaptor Begins

2007-02-08T15:30:43+01:00

So, I finally decided to finish off the last few sequences needed for walking, and now MicroRaptor can walk.

Its not great walking, and it tends to turn to the right (which I can fix fairly easily, I hope). Its also not dynamically balanced yet. But it is clearly walking.

The thing I like about this is it looks sort of like real walking, with the feet tucked under the body, and taking great big strides. Last time I measured it, MicroRaptor's stride (the distance from the front of one foot to the front of the other while at full extension) was about 6", which is pretty good.

The feet are still sliding around a little, and I'm going to fix that pretty soon with some silicone pads on the bottom of his feet. Obviously, of course, this all needs to be tuned, but the plan is (once wifi is enabled and the IMU is in steady use) is that MicroRaptor will tune his walk himself.

Anyways, to see it in action, go here:

http://www.bioloid.info/tiki/tiki-index.php?page=MicroRaptor

and click on "MicroRaptor Movies". The walking one is at the bottom...

- Jon

Statistics: Posted by JonHylands — Thu Feb 08, 2007 3:30 pm

MicroRaptor Begins

2007-02-02T05:11:42+01:00

Thanks, I appreciate it.

I just posted a new video (screen capture video) of the Operations GUI in action.

http://www.bioloid.info/tiki/tiki-index.php?page=MicroRaptor+Movies

- Jon

Statistics: Posted by JonHylands — Fri Feb 02, 2007 5:11 am

MicroRaptor Begins

2007-02-02T03:27:07+01:00

beautiful truly a beautiful machine. I am still a noob but I have looked at all your work. awsome cant wait to see whats next

Statistics: Posted by zaboomafuu — Fri Feb 02, 2007 3:27 am

MicroRaptor Begins

2007-01-25T19:02:29+01:00

I am using SYNC_WRITE, so I don't have to use the ACTION command.

The servos are all getting updated at the same time, although they move different amounts each cycle, depending on the motion plan.

- Jon

Statistics: Posted by JonHylands — Thu Jan 25, 2007 7:02 pm

MicroRaptor Begins

2007-01-25T18:33:51+01:00

Are you not using the Action command when you set Goal Position?
The servos seem to be out of sync.

Statistics: Posted by Bullit — Thu Jan 25, 2007 6:33 pm

MicroRaptor Begins

2007-01-25T14:59:52+01:00

Wow, that's really impressive! Great work.

Statistics: Posted by DerekZahn — Thu Jan 25, 2007 2:59 pm

MicroRaptor Begins

2007-01-25T14:49:07+01:00

More work, and a new movie:

http://www.bioloid.info/tiki/tiki-index.php?page=MicroRaptor+Screenshots
http://www.bioloid.info/tiki/tiki-index.php?page=MicroRaptor+Movies

MicroRaptor took his first real step !

- Jon

Statistics: Posted by JonHylands — Thu Jan 25, 2007 2:49 pm

MicroRaptor Begins

2007-01-20T03:29:43+01:00

Derek,

Yes, that is all part of the plan. All sensor readings are going to be logged one way or the other - since the brain is running on a PC, I have lots of memory and lots of hard drive space.

I haven't really thought that far ahead though, in terms of what the UI will eventually evolve into. I typically write my user interfaces as I need them, adding features and refactoring things until they provide the functionality I need.

I use Squeak Smalltalk for all my programming, including the "brain" of the robot and all the user interfaces. It has its own built-in graphical user interface paradigm called Morphic, which can be extended and enhanced however needed.

- Jon

Statistics: Posted by JonHylands — Sat Jan 20, 2007 3:29 am

MicroRaptor Begins

2007-01-20T01:56:52+01:00

Well, here's what I meant.... an app like the one you posted some great screenshots to can be used to show what is going on while the robot is running, but could also be used to do a detailed analysis of what has happened in the past. Because it's something I'm working on at the moment I was curious how you are thinking of showing that data from the past -- how you correlate sensor readings with the internal controller program decisions and so forth -- and how you are thinking of comparing different runs... like if MR falls over in one trial but (with or without a change in coding) does not fall over in another trial.

I'm using the VFW API for my stuff by the way, which although Windows-specific and a bit out of date is fairly easy to deal with.

Statistics: Posted by DerekZahn — Sat Jan 20, 2007 1:56 am