Collaborate Disseminate
There’s an old saying about standing on the shoulders of giants, but how about doing so with an open source leg? Well, your robots might do so at least, thanks to OpenLeg, a new open source project for building robot legs. Created by [Joey Byrnes], this started out as a …read more
We’ve already seen several dog-like quadruped robots, which move by walking with their four backward-bending legs. Researchers at Florida Atlantic University are now getting in on the act, with their artificially-intelligent (and dog-headed) … Continue reading Astro robo-dog packs an AI-enabled "brain" in its 3D-printed head
The sound a set of machined robot legs tapping on concrete make is remarkable. If for nothing more, the video after the break is worth watching just for this. It’s what caught my attention when I first wandered by the Mech Warfare area at Maker Faire, as one of the …read more
Continue reading Mech Warfare: Like Driving a Building-Sized Robot Through a Busy City
If you like unsettlingly animal-like robots, then you’re probably already familiar with Boston Dynamics’ SpotMini. Well, it’s now in for some competition. Last week at the International Conference on Robotics and Automation, Chinese manufacturer Unitree Robotics showed off its Laikago quadruped.
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Continue Reading Unitree’s Laikago joins the growing robo-dog pack
Category: Robotics
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Continue reading Unitree's Laikago joins the growing robo-dog pack
Last time we wrote about the HyQ robot, it had just mastered walking and begun venturing into rough terrain. Now, its successor has do so with a three-ton passenger airplane in tow. Granted seven years of research and development have played … Continue reading HyQReal four-legged robot tows a three-ton passenger plane
Some legged robots end up moving with ponderous deliberation, or wavering in unstable-looking jerks. A few unfortunates manage to do both at once. [MusaW]’s 3D Printed Quadruped Robot, on the other hand, moves in rapid motions that manage to look sharp and insect-like instead of unstable. Based on an earlier design he made for a 3D printable quadruped frame, [MusaW] has now released this step-by-step guide for building your own version. All that’s needed is the STL files and roughly $50 in parts from the usual Chinese resellers to have the makings of a great weekend project.
The robot uses …read more
Continue reading Watch the Snappy, Insect-like Moves of this DIY Quadruped Robot
Stand up right now and walk around for a minute. We’re pretty sure you didn’t see everywhere you stepped nor did you plan each step meticulously according to visual input. So why should robots do the same? Wouldn’t your robot be more versatile if it could use its vision to plan a path, but leave most of the walking to the legs with the help of various sensors and knowledge of joint positions?
That’s the approach [Sangbae Kim] and a team of researchers at MIT are taking with their Cheetah 3. They’ve given it cameras but aren’t using them yet. …read more
Continue reading Cheetah 3 Is Learning To Move Blindly Before Learning To See
There was a time when a two-legged walking robot was the thing to make. But after seeing years of Boston Dynamic’s amazing four-legged one’s, more DIYers are switching to quadrupeds. Now we can add master DIY robot builder [James Bruton] to the list with his openDog project. What’s exciting here is that with [James’] extensive robot-building background, this is more like starting the challenge from the middle rather than the beginning and we should see exciting results sooner rather than later.
Thus far [James] has gone through the planning stage, having iterated through a few versions using Fusion 360, and …read more
Continue reading [James Bruton] Is Making A Dog: OpenDog Project
Despite the success shown in prototypes from groups like Boston Dynamics, bipedal walking is still really hard to implement. When the robot lifts one leg, it has to shift its center of gravity over the other leg to avoid falling sideways.
The Autonomous Legged Personal Helper Robot with Enhanced Dynamics (ALPHRED) is getting around this problem by coming at it from a different angle. ALPHRED walks sideways and throws away the distinction between arms and legs.
The bot is RoMeLa at UCLA’s latest evolution in their approach to traditional bipedal roadblocks. Sideways walking is something we covered when we talked …read more
Continue reading RoMeLa’s Sideways Walking Robot Has Evolved More Limbs
Whether it’s wheels, tracks, feet, or even a roly-poly body like BB-8, most robots have to deal with an essential problem: dirt and grit can get into the moving bits and cause problems. Some researchers from UCSD have come up with a clever way around this: pneumatically actuated soft-legged robots that adapt to rough terrain.
At a top speed of 20 mm per second, [Michael Tolley]’s squishy little robot won’t set any land speed records. But for applications like search and rescue or placing sensors in inhospitable or inaccessible locations, slow and steady might just win the race. The quadrupedal …read more
Continue reading Soft-legged Robot Handles Rough Terrain with Ease