what should i do if i wanted to start going into robotics

younger people have a better understanding of computers and robotics than most 23 year olds, and im slightly interested in robots



where should i start? as in specific examples, not "lol programming"

programming

i have this friend named brandon. hes like a genius in robotics. i dont understand how he does the things he does.

How to get into robotics like a true champion and not a faggot by Oaky McSmokey "Quadruped Robots For Life" Doo

WHAT ARE WE TALKING ABOUT? (i wrote this post second but im posting it first)

When an individual wants to enter the world of hobbyist robotics, they shouldn't set themselves up with the idea that one can drop $50 on a walking 5ft machine that can talk and perform duties like a human being. There exist no robots like that, and only the finest American technology comes close.

If you want to get into robots, you'll probably start with shit like this.


Better robots might have legs with multiple degrees of freedom and feature inverse kinematics and advanced sensors, allowing the robot to move autonomously.


Whatever your end desire for entering robotics is, know that it is an exciting but expensive field to dirty your hands with. One of my favorite realities about making robots is the constant improvement you see - every successive project will blow your previous robot out of the water, and every mistake that you make will serve as a learning experience.

In my next post that I just realized I copied over with those pictures I just linked, I'll cover the general info about making a robot. Then I'll cover where and what parts you need.

GENERAL INFORMATION

There are many different ways to make a robot move. Ultimately, the core design philosophy of your robot will be based on that question - how does the robot move, and what is its purpose? An additional factor in your design will be your budget, for a large robot capable of carrying loads or sensors will cost significantly more than a small hexapod. Will it be powered via traditional means, or will you try exotic actuators like hydraulics or air muscles? Will it move with wheels, or will you give it legs?

Personally, I always choose servomotors to control my robots. Servos are reliable, proven, and cheap methods of achieving motion, and they do so through rotation rather than translation. Although this  limitation may appear strange, a basic understanding of mechanics can allow any seemingly-complex motion to be translated into rotations on multiple planes. In my previous post, I showed a picture of a robot powered by an unconventional actuator: a vibrating motor. Unlike servos and muscles, those robots are incapable of directional control; they just vibrate randomly and serve no purpose. I will assume you want to make a robot that is capable of doing something.

This is a servo.

The motor you see in this picture is manufactured by a Japanese company that charges ridiculous premiums for shit motors. I will discuss Hitec and other servo companies in my next post.

If you want to make a wheeled vehicle, you're in luck. There are cheap kits (will cover in my next post) that you can buy for less than $35 that will include the motors and circuitry required to control a robot like that. I own one of those kits:



These are not particularly-exciting robots to put together. They don't do anything, and they don't look cool. They are, however, excellent introductions to the programming and electronics knowledge essential to making a functional robot. Unfortunately, they impart little to no mechanical knowledge; you won't learn anything about making legs move, and you won't touch upon angles in any shape or form.

Robots with legs are fun. But they're also fairly expensive unless you keep your parts cheap - my latest project was built with hobbyist servos from a Chinese company, and the motors alone were $120. The controller I am using for the servos was another $35, and I plan to buy a battery that I assume will cost ~$20. I also have a Teensy microcontroller that cost $15, and I own a distance sensor that was probably $10. I've probably paid pennies in plastic to print my frame.

If you choose to build a robot with legs, you have a number of design philosophies to choose from. Ranked in descending order for difficulty, these configurations are bipedal, tripedal, quadrupedal, and hexapedal. For hexapedal designs and beyond, a robot has the advantage of being stable at all points in its walking gait; tripod and quadruped robots may struggle with their gaits causing the robot fall over (this problem plagued my second quadruped robot). In general, the more legs, the more money you'll need to spend - most hexapod designs use 12 or 18 servos, but if you're interested, I have a design I made in 2013 that only uses three and is made from cardboard.

From this point, I assume you're making your own design - if you want to find out about kits, as I mentioned previously, see my third post.

If you choose to not buy a kit, designing your robot is still a fairly straightforward process. Once you've selected your parts (at least the motors/actuators - the electronics can often wait since they're easy to mount), you can begin to design the frame with your material of choice. Obviously, I print all of my parts out of plastic with my 3D printer, but if you don't have one available, you're going to be limited to cardboard and acrylic if you're capable of cutting and drilling it. You can also get creative with household materials of superior strength; clipboards are made of a particularly-strong composite material and are definitely rigid enough for a robot. If you don't have your motors available, always follow standard engineering practice and work with consistent tolerances - if the website you order your parts from claims that a motor is 49mm long, don't assume it means 49.0mm!

I should note that a number of configurations render walking a functionally-impossible task. For example, you can not get a good, directionally-accurate (that is, moving in straight lines) gait out of one of the first robots I made in 2013. This is because all possible rotational combinations will push the robot forward and then backwards when the arm goes down to contact the ground. Keep this in mind if you make a robot of your own design.



You are free to design your robot however you like, so there isn't much to say about the process. Once it's complete, you can put together your electronics (usually a straightforward task) and program a walk cycle. You may find it easiest to simply discover the angles that you need to set each motor to for the robot to walk (an arduous but potential solution), or you might find your own ways of approximating a robot's gait with some inverse kinematics system. Or, if you don't care for the programming aspect of the process but know enough to make slight modifications, you can copy existing, compatible code.

Your robot will never be perfect. Once you get it to walk, you'll either keep working on it as if it were your child, or you'll start a new project. Either way, don't become discouraged if you encounter difficulty at every step of the process - building robots isn't easy! In my next post, I'll detail where you get parts and or kits, and what you might want to start with.

BUYING THINGS

Buying a robot is always hard if you're not a fan of spending money - buying a robot can be an investment of over $1000 depending on what you want. If you've decided to make a robot, you either want to make one from scratch, or you want to buy and put together a kit. If you want to buy a premade, preassembled robot, you're not really trying to get into 'robotics' in my opinion so much as you want to buy an expensive toy - if this is what you want, prepare to spend a lot of money.

Kits can be purchased from a variety of retailers with varying costs. RobotShop and TrossenRobotics are both specialty retailers that charge premiums on all of their products, but they're the only source of quite a few existing robot kits. Amazon probably has more kits available; I don't know.

I'm not a kit person, but a specific design that I know is both well-made and popular is the PhantomX hexapod. That hexapod is also the most expensive design I know of, since it uses extremely expensive motors. Thus, we segway into the topic of components.

If you want to build your own robot, it's a little difficult to come up with a price range. You must work within the constraints of your budget, and I would argue that a robot can be made for almost nothing if you're creative enough. You can choose wherever you'd like to buy your actuators and components (I prefer Digikey for general parts, since they ship from a US warehouse and offer weight-based shipping instead of Amazon's per-item BULLSHIT), but I'll offer my thoughts on some brands.

* Hitec: Japanese company that charges way too much for standard servos. They'll work, but since all of their affordable motors are made of nylon, you can literally render them useless by screwing in a screw too tightly, which will strip the soft threads. They aren't made of bad components, but they are definitely cheap - even their $25 motors are nylon-based, have low torque, and use analog controllers.

* Futaba: Also a Japanese company, I think. Just as expensive as Hitec, but I believe their cheaper models have metal gear drives. My only experience with these parts is from a few I salvaged from one of my father's old RC planes.

* Towerpro: The only way to go if you want to make tiny, cheap robots. But you get what you pay for - TowerPro is some of the cheapest shit you can get, and with the exception of their latest and more expensive motors, most of it is absolute GARBAGE. In my last project that used TowerPro SG90 servos, at least two of them came with broken gears (making them useless) and one ended up breaking while I was putting the robot together. Also, be wary that TowerPro has a number of Chinese competitors with similar names like 'TowardPro'.

* Dynamixel: Top-tier Jap servos that cost more than Jeb Bush's Presidential campaign. Digital, and packed with tons of useful features (like accuracy), but offer extremely low torque given their cost. AX-12s are the most popular model from this brand.

* Herkules (or something): Chinese equivalent to Dynamixel servos. Good enough to make the Stag.


* Generic servos: I would always avoid generic or random Chinese servos. Most of them blow, and they offer no guarantee of quality. Research the brand and model before making a decision.

I don't know any other manufacturers off the top of my head. Unfortunately, I don't believe there are any indigenous or even western motor manufacturers that make hobbyist servos.

Batteries are the same deal - Tenergy makes shit batteries, and anything sold on HobbyKing is probably shit too except for their flagship products. You'll need to research them on an individual basis, and be careful if you work with lipos. If you have a small robot, you can almost certainly power it with AAs or even a 9V battery.

As for microcontrollers, most people find it easy to get started with an Arduino Uno or comparable controller. They're relatively inexpensive and extremely easy to use, but you'll need to wire your battery directly to the motors, not the controller (there is information available on how to do this online). There are also servo controllers that can send power and data to your whole robot like the Polulu Mini Maestro (just bought one, no idea if it's good) and Lynxmotion's controllers. In addition, if you have an Arduino, you can buy a Sainsmart sensor shield and plop it onto your controller. You can also wire up your own power board if you don't give a shit, but you'll still need some kind of microcontroller to control your motors.

There are too many sensor solutions to list, but most people opt for an ultrasonic sensor or an infrared sensor - both are used to detect distance and their use should be obvious. Pressure sensors, computer vision, and other complex inputs require serious electronics, robotics, and programming experience to properly implement.

If you have any additional questions or want some inspiration/help making your robot, ask me.

hope that helps

i just sort of typed that out like a stream of consciousness so it probably reads like shit i dont care

im gonna copy these and make a 'so you want to x: robotics' thread because i assume op is gonna be like 'lol tl dr i dont care that much'

lemme also add this

What you should AVOID if you're looking at getting into robotics is quite simply anything that doesn't appear to be worth the cost. If you see a $300 robotics kit made of plastic with four wheels and fake tank treads that doesn't even come with the motors or electronics, it's overpriced birthday present shit for rich kids. If you see a robot being advertised for $179 and it's just the frame, it had better be a nice frame and not low quality acrylic bullshit that will crack when you try to fit a servo inside.

is that u sayuth?

Pokeleaks Hacker Beejuay wrote:is that u sayuth?

matt bunting's hexapod is lightyears ahead of my current quadruped design

i honestly thought it mightve been you at first because the table looked like it couldve been the same one from the pictures youve shown me but i knew it to be wrong cuz ur not white

flademcgay wrote:i honestly thought it mightve been you at first because the table looked like it couldve been the same one from the pictures youve shown me but i knew it to be wrong cuz ur not white

i am very white

oaky wrote:

flademcgay wrote:i honestly thought it mightve been you at first because the table looked like it couldve been the same one from the pictures youve shown me but i knew it to be wrong cuz ur not white

i am very white

are u sure

thanks for the info, i did read it all