Quadruped Robot Project 2020.
Project history:
Getting started, February 11th 2020
Catching the Puppy bug, February 12th 2020
Catching the Puppy bug (II), February 17th 2020
But how to control it? February 18th 2020
New Quadruped Puppy Robot Video. February 20th 2020.
Planned learning path. February 28th 2020.
Making it real. February 29th 2020.
Getting Started, Primo February 2020.
Stumbled upon the Stanford Doggo Project,
(Gizmodo, Youtube) in February 2020,
and was immediately hooked.
Their next ''Puppy Project'' looked even better,
and it would clearly be nice to
be involved in something similar...
There weren't that many details in the first, Feb 2020, ''Puppy'' announcement though [1]:
Animal-like, four-legged robots have been crowd pleases since Boston Dynamics ''BigDog''. And Stanfords Doggo reveals how such robots may be made open source, accessible, and academic. Doggo's creators will demonstrate the diminutive robot, plus its smaller and bigger siblings Pupper and Woofer, at ''Robotics + AI'' on March 3rd, 2020.
...
In an effort to additional push the bounds of who can construct and experiment with robots like this, the crew is constructing a smaller, even cheaper robot referred to as Pupper. They hope to get the price all the way down to a place where even highschool students, and alike, can afford one.
But, certainly, ''Pupper the Movie'' looked enticing [2]:
Alluring...
On another webpage it was even possible to see some technical drawings of the ''Puppy'' [3]:
Just as it was possible to find some control code on Github.
All, very cool indeed.
And very alluring...
Catching the Puppy bug.
February 12th, 2020.
The following day was all about spreading the good news..
Colleagues Jonas, Kaj & Hans Henrik were easy converts.
And later
that day everyone was fired up, determined to build this thing ourselves.
Being the better ''putting the hardware together''-roboticist,
we quickly
decided that Jonas should try to build the first prototype...
Should be possible in a couple of months we all agreed...
Catching the Puppy bug (II).
February 17th, 2020.
(Eaaa student) Rasmus told me that he wanted to make a project with a Python Flask site.
But hadn't figured out what it should be all about...
I suggested to him that it could be about robots. And this project
in particular.
A place where hobby-roboticists could showcase their projects.
Now, Rasmus was also excited, and told me that he would start right away on such a site...
But how to control it? February 18th 2020.
But, how should we move this thing around?
Started by taking a look at Alex Winklers robot page about:
Off-the-shelf solvers that automatically generate a motion-plan for any terrain or task.
See his Youtube video for details.
Again, all pretty exciting stuff..
New Quadruped Puppy Robot Video.
February 20th 2020.
And then there was a new cute ''Puppy''-video on Youtube...
Bill of materials: Materials.
Pupper Python Sim: GitHub code.
Actually, when you look for it on Youtube, there are a number of quadropeds out there: Quadroped Robot.
Planned learning path. February 28th 2020.
But, clearly, we still needed something the robot should/could do.
The robot should move around, so there should be some kind of Motion Planning.
Which should probably be done within the ROS framework...
But how do you (the developer) learn this stuff...?
Got in contact with Alex, who gave me a couple of links to look into:
Udemy course: ROS for Beginners: Basics, Motion, and OpenCV
Other ways to get started: Ros Tutorials Wiki
Training: Become a ROS Developer
Still, would be nice with some ''non-virtual'' training as well.
Talked with the guys on TUDelfts ''Hello World with ROS'' course about it.
They (Gijs) suggested that we could take the TUDelft course, and then
take the ROS summerschool in Aachen in August.
Sounded like a plan ...
Updated Preliminary Plan:
- March - August 2020: Assembly of the robot.
- August 2020: Online learning. Either Udemy Course or TUDelft course. Or (other) ROS tutorials.
- August 2020: (if possible) ROS Summershool.
- September - October 2020: Prepare a student ROS project.
- Late 2020 - early 2021: Running an actual ROS project.
Clearly, a lot to do. And many things that might not work out as hoped for.
But, well, at least we now had a plan and a project...
Making it real. February 29th 2020.
Well:
- A goal without a plan is just a wish (Saint-Exupéry).
- By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail (Benjamin Franklin).
- Good planning without good working is nothing (Dwight D. Eisenhower).
Indeed, we will see in the coming year how this all goes...
For now, jump ahead to August 2020,
where we assembled the Pupper robot,
and took it our for a first spin.
See here.
Certainly, more updates to follow... in coming months and years...
-Simon
Simon Laub (Let me Google that for you).
www.simonlaub.net
