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I am planning to build a humanoid robot (about 60cm height)

Discussions regarding building a walking robot at home. Most of the robots participating at Robo-One competitions are custom fabricated.
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I am planning to build a humanoid robot (about 60cm height)

Post by bonmot » Wed Mar 21, 2007 11:16 pm

Post by bonmot
Wed Mar 21, 2007 11:16 pm

Still in research.
I am a senior embedded software/hardware designer

The tools I have:

Protel DXP, circuit design, schematic and PCB layout
SolidWorks 2007, all mechanical designs.
An Intel Xscale 270 (520MHZ) single board computer. will be used as the Robot brain.
C/C++/JAVA development tools
Embedded Linux or Windows CE
LIPO batteries
6 channel remote/receiver
PINO robot drawings as my start point

Materials I will buy:
Servos.
Aluminum sheet.
GYRO.
3-Axil acceleration sensor.
Wifi module for the Robot.

I think the self-balancing is the biggest challenge in this project. But I cannot find any articles on the Internet talking about it. Don't know if there any open source I can use as the start point.

I live in Ontario, Canada. I am new in this forum. One thing I think we are same, we all have a robot-dream.
Still in research.
I am a senior embedded software/hardware designer

The tools I have:

Protel DXP, circuit design, schematic and PCB layout
SolidWorks 2007, all mechanical designs.
An Intel Xscale 270 (520MHZ) single board computer. will be used as the Robot brain.
C/C++/JAVA development tools
Embedded Linux or Windows CE
LIPO batteries
6 channel remote/receiver
PINO robot drawings as my start point

Materials I will buy:
Servos.
Aluminum sheet.
GYRO.
3-Axil acceleration sensor.
Wifi module for the Robot.

I think the self-balancing is the biggest challenge in this project. But I cannot find any articles on the Internet talking about it. Don't know if there any open source I can use as the start point.

I live in Ontario, Canada. I am new in this forum. One thing I think we are same, we all have a robot-dream.
bonmot
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Post by DerekZahn » Thu Mar 22, 2007 4:14 am

Post by DerekZahn
Thu Mar 22, 2007 4:14 am

Greetings, welcome to the forum, here you will find people who understand you!

There aren't any good web pages about making these kinds of robots balance well because nobody has demonstrated an ability to do it! Maybe a few research labs have made some progress on very high-end bipeds doing good dynamic balancing, but even the academic literature is pretty weak in my opinion (at least what I've been able to find).

It's not a biped, but this is pretty fun (check out the video):

http://www.bdi.com/content/sec.php?section=BigDog

Some of us are trying to make progress on it (myself included). Nothing great to report yet.

One thing you do see is people using the output of a gyro to attempt to resist rotational motion by counter-rotating the ankle joints (and maybe some other joints as well, on some of the commercial bipeds it is built into the programming language). From what I gather, this can be very effective and certainly counts as balance.

What servos are you thinking of using?
Greetings, welcome to the forum, here you will find people who understand you!

There aren't any good web pages about making these kinds of robots balance well because nobody has demonstrated an ability to do it! Maybe a few research labs have made some progress on very high-end bipeds doing good dynamic balancing, but even the academic literature is pretty weak in my opinion (at least what I've been able to find).

It's not a biped, but this is pretty fun (check out the video):

http://www.bdi.com/content/sec.php?section=BigDog

Some of us are trying to make progress on it (myself included). Nothing great to report yet.

One thing you do see is people using the output of a gyro to attempt to resist rotational motion by counter-rotating the ankle joints (and maybe some other joints as well, on some of the commercial bipeds it is built into the programming language). From what I gather, this can be very effective and certainly counts as balance.

What servos are you thinking of using?
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Re: I am planning to build a humanoid robot (about 60cm heig

Post by JonHylands » Thu Mar 22, 2007 5:12 am

Post by JonHylands
Thu Mar 22, 2007 5:12 am

bonmot wrote:I live in Ontario, Canada. I am new in this forum. One thing I think we are same, we all have a robot-dream.


Where in Ontario? I live in SW Ontario, about 2 hours west of Toronto...

- Jon
bonmot wrote:I live in Ontario, Canada. I am new in this forum. One thing I think we are same, we all have a robot-dream.


Where in Ontario? I live in SW Ontario, about 2 hours west of Toronto...

- Jon
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Post by bonmot » Thu Mar 22, 2007 5:12 am

Post by bonmot
Thu Mar 22, 2007 5:12 am

I am going to use S5301 servo.
This site tells you how to modify it to increase the Torque.
http://www.symbio.jst.go.jp/PINO/OpenPI ... _pino.html

About balancing, I think there is also a strategy issue. For example, if the Robo is in an unbalanced position, and one hand is not fully extended, the controller at least has two options according to how "unbalance" it is:
1) if just need a little bit adjustment, just extend the hand.
2) if it is far off, then need to move the body...

an even better logic is: quickly move the hand (if the hand is available at the moment) to keep the balance, if still cannot fix it, then move the body.

dreaming: The robo can self learn how to balance itself...

Derek, I've red you Bing thread, it is fantastic. To have a machine shop is my dream...

I also fly RC electronics helicopters.
I am going to use S5301 servo.
This site tells you how to modify it to increase the Torque.
http://www.symbio.jst.go.jp/PINO/OpenPI ... _pino.html

About balancing, I think there is also a strategy issue. For example, if the Robo is in an unbalanced position, and one hand is not fully extended, the controller at least has two options according to how "unbalance" it is:
1) if just need a little bit adjustment, just extend the hand.
2) if it is far off, then need to move the body...

an even better logic is: quickly move the hand (if the hand is available at the moment) to keep the balance, if still cannot fix it, then move the body.

dreaming: The robo can self learn how to balance itself...

Derek, I've red you Bing thread, it is fantastic. To have a machine shop is my dream...

I also fly RC electronics helicopters.
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Re: I am planning to build a humanoid robot (about 60cm heig

Post by bonmot » Thu Mar 22, 2007 5:13 am

Post by bonmot
Thu Mar 22, 2007 5:13 am

JonHylands wrote:
bonmot wrote:I live in Ontario, Canada. I am new in this forum. One thing I think we are same, we all have a robot-dream.


Where in Ontario? I live in SW Ontario, about 2 hours west of Toronto...

- Jon


Burlington
I think you are in Waterloo
JonHylands wrote:
bonmot wrote:I live in Ontario, Canada. I am new in this forum. One thing I think we are same, we all have a robot-dream.


Where in Ontario? I live in SW Ontario, about 2 hours west of Toronto...

- Jon


Burlington
I think you are in Waterloo
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Post by JonHylands » Thu Mar 22, 2007 5:35 am

Post by JonHylands
Thu Mar 22, 2007 5:35 am

No, way south of there, just SW of Brantford, in fact.

We have a build-fest at the Bug'n'Bots store in Brampton every month - if you're interested, let me know...

- Jon
No, way south of there, just SW of Brantford, in fact.

We have a build-fest at the Bug'n'Bots store in Brampton every month - if you're interested, let me know...

- Jon
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Post by bonmot » Thu Mar 22, 2007 1:40 pm

Post by bonmot
Thu Mar 22, 2007 1:40 pm

JonHylands wrote:No, way south of there, just SW of Brantford, in fact.

We have a build-fest at the Bug'n'Bots store in Brampton every month - if you're interested, let me know...

- Jon


Sure, please let me know, where and when? I am in.
JonHylands wrote:No, way south of there, just SW of Brantford, in fact.

We have a build-fest at the Bug'n'Bots store in Brampton every month - if you're interested, let me know...

- Jon


Sure, please let me know, where and when? I am in.
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Post by Humanoido » Tue Apr 10, 2007 3:38 pm

Post by Humanoido
Tue Apr 10, 2007 3:38 pm

How tall are you planning? What size is the controller board?
How tall are you planning? What size is the controller board?
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Post by JonHylands » Tue Apr 10, 2007 3:45 pm

Post by JonHylands
Tue Apr 10, 2007 3:45 pm

bonmot wrote:
JonHylands wrote:No, way south of there, just SW of Brantford, in fact.

We have a build-fest at the Bug'n'Bots store in Brampton every month - if you're interested, let me know...

- Jon


Sure, please let me know, where and when? I am in.


The April BuildFest is this coming Saturday (April 14), at 10:00 am.

http://www.bugnbots.com for address/directions...

If you need a drive, let me know.

- Jon
bonmot wrote:
JonHylands wrote:No, way south of there, just SW of Brantford, in fact.

We have a build-fest at the Bug'n'Bots store in Brampton every month - if you're interested, let me know...

- Jon


Sure, please let me know, where and when? I am in.


The April BuildFest is this coming Saturday (April 14), at 10:00 am.

http://www.bugnbots.com for address/directions...

If you need a drive, let me know.

- Jon
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Post by bonmot » Tue Apr 10, 2007 4:54 pm

Post by bonmot
Tue Apr 10, 2007 4:54 pm

Humanoido wrote:How tall are you planning? What size is the controller board?


It will be 70cm high.
Control board is about 3 inches by 5 inches. CPU is Intel Xscale270.
I am planning to do dynamic balancing
Humanoido wrote:How tall are you planning? What size is the controller board?


It will be 70cm high.
Control board is about 3 inches by 5 inches. CPU is Intel Xscale270.
I am planning to do dynamic balancing
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Post by Humanoido » Thu Apr 12, 2007 10:44 am

Post by Humanoido
Thu Apr 12, 2007 10:44 am

That will be a good size humanoid, one of the larger ones, so the controller board will be just the right size. Do you have any plans on how you will bend the aluminum? Maybe you work at a tool company? I've been working with kits most of the time because there's no access to machine metal bending equipment. Most of the people making their own from scratch, do they have their own metal brakes or access to a tool company? I'm still looking for a quick cheap way to bend aluminum and have it turn out professional looking.

humanoido
That will be a good size humanoid, one of the larger ones, so the controller board will be just the right size. Do you have any plans on how you will bend the aluminum? Maybe you work at a tool company? I've been working with kits most of the time because there's no access to machine metal bending equipment. Most of the people making their own from scratch, do they have their own metal brakes or access to a tool company? I'm still looking for a quick cheap way to bend aluminum and have it turn out professional looking.

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Post by bonmot » Thu Apr 12, 2007 2:21 pm

Post by bonmot
Thu Apr 12, 2007 2:21 pm

I am planning to build one bending machine by myself with some existing tools.
I am planning to build one bending machine by myself with some existing tools.
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Post by Humanoido » Fri Apr 13, 2007 2:39 pm

Post by Humanoido
Fri Apr 13, 2007 2:39 pm

I'm very impressed that you can build your own bending tool. You have great mechanical skills to accomplish this! Let us know about it.

humanoido
I'm very impressed that you can build your own bending tool. You have great mechanical skills to accomplish this! Let us know about it.

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13 postsPage 1 of 1