3D-printable humanoid legs let robotics experiments run wild
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These are neat, and an interesting project, but I swear the first company that creates an autonomous robot that can scrub toilets, showers, and sinks, that can do laundry and properly clean floors and kitchens will make so much money.
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I have a lower aim. Being mobility impaired and with a rental agreement made under duress (the alternative was homelessness) I've lived in a a second floor apartment up to and down from which is a hell of a struggle.
So give me a robot that can carry crap up and down those stairs and I'll deal with heaving my bulk up and down on my own for a while longer. With housing in my area (and many others across the country/around the world) getting a lot spendier, finding places that can accommodate an aging population is getting harder and harder to do. Robotic mobility assistance would be one huge market if they ever work out the kinks in it.
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I'm still not sold on humanoid robots as a solution to most problems currently solved by robots, but I'm not involved in the field in any manner. As with most hype cycles, companies will eventually admit they're not as useful as our billionaire overlords told us, and they will find niches.
But this level of open-sourcing is really, really cool to see. I look forward to some whatever weird and unhinged things come out of the maker space.
But this level of open-sourcing is really, really cool to see. I look forward to some whatever weird and unhinged things come out of the maker space.
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A robot that could do that would have a measurable effect on the world-wide divorce rate.
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Have you investigated whether a mobility exoskeleton could help you? Don’t want to assume anything tho.
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Oh jeez, wait until hacker-types get into this...droid armies! They don't have to be particularly good, just relatively cheap and numerous.
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If you're talking about extensive drone warfare, quadcopters are already leagues better and robots with fewer moving parts are generally prefered.
If you're talking about a remake of the Star Wars prequels where all of the CGI droids are replaced with real mechanical props, yeah that's a good use of printable humanoid robots.
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I think that's the wrong track. The problem is not "robots will take over people's work" - I would love to see robots cleaning toilets and picking up garbage.
The problem is that we can't or won't effectively tax capital gains, and robots will further reduce labour's involvement in economic activity; so the benefit of getting people out of unpleasant jobs will accrue to a small number of people rather than being shared across society.
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I wonder if they took some inspiration from Bowler Studio (https://commonwealthrobotics.com/)
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Would love to see this as an alternative to the wheel chair (two or four legged). Something that can properly side-step and handle basic terrain, like stairs and sand. Even those high-end powered wheel-chairs feel severely constrained compared to a pair of legs. Seriously, you don't realize how often you take a step to the left, until you're forced to reverse a little, rotate 90deg to the left, move forward, rotate 90deg to the right, then move forward a little (and hope that you got it right that time).
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This is one product launch away from a robot dog version that you can mount a gun to and program. With AI.
I do not like this
I do not like this
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Until the lawsuits happen after some of the bots, in a fuge of AI hallucination, set fire to their owner's home or stomp/crush/throw-away/release/drown/cook (take your pick) the family pet...or baby.
Having said that, I would really really love a maid-bot that I could trust to do its job alone at home.
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Why does it need the dog part. Slap that .50 cal right on top of these legs and point 'em toward the enemy!
/s
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A mobile wagon capable of stairs would be marketable. Wheels for distance, legs for stairs. New York 6-story walk-ups and Chicago 3-story 24-flats could offer it to residents for laundry and grocery trips as a market entry point. Anything bound by stairs could be overcome. Rentals for folks on crutches...
Having heavy(ish) things carried on stairs could serve a crazy number of people which sounds like multiple, large markets to me.
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HuntingManatees
Ars Centurion
AliExpress already has you covered on the dog!
Just knock together one of those remote triggers they used to use all the time on "Mythbusters" and you're pretty much golden.
The actual militarization depends on one's local gun laws, I suppose. But I would imagine it's much simpler to build an improvised firearm when you're not worried about ergonomics or whether it'll fit in a pocket.
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As long as it doesn't turn evil and hack all your accounts!
For those with 3D printers and a little less ambition to leap into human-scale bipeds, this YouTuber just released a video demonstrating and building his open licensed 5-motor biped.
(~25 minute video with sponsor mentions, and an ad spot for a machine learning company from 12:00 to 13:45)
He's got similar releases for quadrupedal and hexapod walking platforms as well. Despite all the shilling he does for his sponsors, his channel is also genuinely useful for exploring basic mobile robotics and a few exotic locomotion concepts.
Another videomaker I want to give some eyeballs to is Aaed Musa, who goes through several interesting robotics and other electromechanical projects including more than one video about actuating a robot dog with capstan drives rather than gear or belt drive systems. His videos tend to be a bit spicier, too, but both give explanations of things like PID control and inverse kinematics that are important for understanding limbed robots.
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faultedgeologist
Smack-Fu Master, in training
I am sure Tesla stock somehow still went up with the release of this robot base. Hmmmm. The future might be interesting after all.
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YetAnotherAnonymousAppellation
Ars Praefectus
Interesting, but I think that the 2-degree-of-freedom replacement for the hip joint is going to prove to be insufficient. I can't see how it would be possible for this "chassis" to shuffle sideways or even just lean sideways to execute common actions in a reasonable amount of time.
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I was looking at these recently for my wife. Super exciting. She deals with chronic fatigue and I'm hoping that might help.
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just in case, have you try a stair-climbing trolley? i'd think it's more cheaper & readily available instead of waiting for a robot.
one example for reference:
View: https://youtu.be/15nEKulj90U
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Ah, yes, the old "evil maid-bot" attack. Good thing I have secure boot enabled! (Not really.)
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This is all so comically stupid. The human form evolved to swing from branch to branch without falling. Our form is wholly in conflict with a lot of tasks we perform every day which is why most of us end up with aching backs and wrecked joints later in life. It is the worst form factor for performing the very jobs these robots are advertised as being able to perform.
When the real-life revenge of the nerds started in the 90's, I did not realize so much energy was going to be poured into bringing Sci-Fi nostalgia to life rather than...you know...thinking things through a bit.
When the real-life revenge of the nerds started in the 90's, I did not realize so much energy was going to be poured into bringing Sci-Fi nostalgia to life rather than...you know...thinking things through a bit.
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However, we have optimized our own structured environment and technology around it. So there's a line of thinking that practical robots will need to use a similar form to be successful in places that aren't flat corridors with all the doodads accessible at ankle-level.
You won't have this:
Driving your car or doing your laundry or stocking your warehouses.
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Legs are necessary so it can go up and down stairs, but two legs isn't enough and means the robot needs to be constantly balancing itself to remain upright, six will let it move by three points of contact at a time as a good compromise between speed and safety.
It just needs two powerful arms with simple hands that can firmly grasp things, no need for many individual fingers. We can skip the torso and mount those arms to the base to minimize the odds of tipping over.
It will need to be able to look over waist high objects, of course, but a whole head and long neck isn't necessary for that and just raises the center of gravity too much. Just give it a camera on a stick attached to the front of the base. It might be a bit fragile, so give it a second camera on a second stick for redundancy.
And finally, stick it in a hard, waterproof casing to protect it from both clumsy accidents and the elements.
And then it will be perfect.
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Structural integrity of 3d printed materials aside, I wonder how useful this would be as a platform for amputees. As a musician and software engineer, I've frequently thought about how I could DIY something that would replace a lost finger, for example. Could this be used as a platform to train AI about human gait, or modified human gait, or even just a direct leg replacement?
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