re: Material for Ava
The material is 1.75mm ABS filament for 3D Printers.
re: cyberjeff
It will be bluetooth from one of the Arduinos to the Phone (instead of USB), and then HTTP requests via Wifi from the phone to the PC. Down the line, I may use XBee outdoors. I have had several lying around way too long. I hope to add one in.
Same PC as with Anna. The server is setup to handle multiple bots simultaneously while supporting separate identity, memories, opinions, and reflex behaviors for each bot. My true love is on the software side, so I plan to get back to that as soon as I can put this bot together. I’d like to experiment with talking to both or getting the robots to talk to each other. I wanted the additional actuators so Ava could be more physically expressive. I am excited about the moving ears I am planning.
Great work, Martin!The
Great work, Martin!
The square body with tank treads reminds me a bit the WALL-E, but I guess the similarities will end here.
Can’t wait to see more on this project and the ears, and to see those arms in action!
Great work!
I’m printing many modular pieces to make a medium size robot like AVA. Tracks are better than wheels indoor? It will go rogue like in Deus ex Machina?
Thanks Dickel
Thanks so much Dickel. For those of you that don’t know, Dickel is one of our resident gods that inspire others en masse.
Yes, Ava it is similar to WALL-E, by design, The reason is, my robots are designed to hold a lot of sensors and processors, and I don’t know up-front what I will want to pack into them later.
The square shape will change when i add the new front panel, a 3-D trapeziod like the one in the back. It will hold all the regulators. The result will be a body a little like a duck’s. The logic of the box or the duck shape is to maximize internal space. I may yet cram not one, but 2 Raspberry Pi 2’s inside with 2 more cameras. Space for power supply and wires is the challenge.
I am really looking forward to the cat-like ears, which are really just a concept in my head right now. I picked out the servos…some small 7.4 volt ones from E-Z Robot. I might put a camera or thermal array sensor in each ear. My goal, as always, is to have maximum situational awareness. With scanning ears (with cameras or thermal array), Ava could really have a major improvement in situational awareness, being able to scan 360 degree without even moving the head.
I really hope this translates to Portugeese. Good luck on your projects. I always know that when you are quiet, some new awesome MDI is on the way.
Regards,
Martin
re: Silux
I would like to release AVA’s stl files and code as an open source project. I have no idea yet about how to handle licensing, but that is my goal once I feel like I won’t be doing any major redesign.
I would love to see what you are doing, the earlier the better. My ego made me hold back on Ava for a couple months. I would hate to unduly influence your creativity by releasing my design too early.
I think the question of how to build an endoskeletion or exoskeleton for a bot in this size range is one of the most interesting issues we face. AVA uses a combination of endo and exo-skeleton to get strength. The tradeoffs of design/weight/flexiblity of change is something I lose sleep over constantly. In retrospect, Ava is over-built and as to need, she could lose a few grams. I used 30% infill with the 3D prints. The inner beams (non corner) are entirely questionable. I am thinking about going to 1/16 ABS skin instead of the 1/8 inch skin I am using for almost everything now.
What do you think? Please elaborate. I would love to hear as my conclusions are arrived at in solo.
Regards,
Martin
USB vs Bluetooth
Hey mtriplett,
You already know I’m following this project :). I wanted to ask you why did you went for bluetooth instead of usb? I’m using usb for now, but maybe there is something I’m not takeing into consideration yet.
Cheers and congratulations for this awesome machine!
**help **
hello i needing help with my lunar rover so could u give me some edvience on it becouse i like the look of ava and its design can u tell me bascis and programing system thanks u can email my persernal email : [email protected] thanks
My approach now is to make
My approach now is to make many meccano-like pieces; big high infill pieces, solid angle joints and low infill parts for holding sensors or electronics. Core structure will be made with composite T shaped joints.
I’m using mostly PLA, 3shells rectlinear 70 infill for big long pieces, 2 shells 90 infill honeycomb for joints , 1 shell 20 infill curved infil for mounts.
-to be continued later-
re: USB vs Bluetooth
Thanks for the positive feedback. I like USB and wish that I could use it on this one. The challenge on Ava is how to run the cable. All the new phones that I might use for the face have the port on the end of the phone. The cable would end up sticking out of the side of the face and getting in the way of the laser or other sensors on one side of the head.
I only hope the bluetooth route doesn’t have a lot of problems, especially when powering up/down a lot.
re: Silux
I was intrigued by what you wrote. I didn’t realize that the pattern of the infill could be controlled. I’ll have to figure out how to do that.
The base is 4 pieces screwed together that have beams built into them to support the floor.
Then there are 4 vertical corner beams, and 4 vertical inner beams that screw to the base. These beams are 3/8 inch square cross-section, and have offshoots to support the sonar deck and top deck. I think they are 3 shells and 40% infill. About everything else on the bot is 30% and 2 shells I think. I can post pictures of some of the beams if anyone is interested.
There are 4 1/8 inch thick panels that cover the sides up to the sonar deck. Once some of these bolt on with some of the black decking pieces, everything gets really really strong. If anything, I would like to have made the structure lighter and less strong, but I wanted to use screws to hold everything together so I could redesign and replace parts later. I felt like the width of the screws forced my beam structure to be at least 3/8in thick. A lot of the reason for the offshoots on the beams was to provide enough space for screws to come in from multiple directions without running into each other and weakening the beams.
A bot that is glued instead of screwed could be a lot lighter…I just can’t imagine having to reprint and redo everything to make a change. I experimented with pieces held together with notches in the plastic (like InMoov has on its internal parts). I decided that technique was not good for structures like this and would have lead to everything being much heavier.
I think 1/8 inch for the panels and decks could have been overkill. I guess they are largely hollow (70% hollow), so making them thinner might not help much on weight. Time will tell though, thinner pieces might not hold up to the screws being inserted and removed very many times. I spent hours and hours scraping the raft structures from the bottom of all these pieces.
What I’m planning to do is
What I’m planning to do is to use a cable like this. But it’s true, the face will be a little bigger.
We will be able to share what we learn following both paths then.
I can print fine without
I can print fine without raft, i use glue on the heated bed glass to improve adhaerence and z axis as best as possible. I refrain to to use glue as it makes the bot hard to repair or maintain, and glue joints on abs aren’t strong as screws. I mainly use 5/32 or 4mm screws on 4mm thick panels, 15/64 or 6mm for structural parts. Aluminium rods may be easier, lighter and faster to machine.
re: help
I would recommend that you post your project and the challenges you are facing so all can see and possibly help you out. Alternatively, you can also post new forum topics or blogs. If you have specific questions about how I did something with Anna or Ava, you can post questions on those robot pages and I’ll try my best to address them one by one if it is not too much.
I think this is better and will enable you to get more valuable help from more people. I trade emails with some people, but that is mostly just personal stuff with friends. I like to keep the robot stuff on LMR, as it enriches us all. No one on LMR is typically a one-person help desk anyway, but the community as a whole can be very helpful.
I hope you understand.
Regards,
Martin
Just write in the forums
A lunar rover is not a task for a lone person. Even medium size robots are usually made in a team.
"For those of you that don’t
"For those of you that don’t know, Dickel is one of our resident gods that inspire others en masse." hehehhh
And for those of you that don’t know, mtriplett is our resident god of AI!
Your work with Anna is impressive, and I guess putting together this experience and a bot with arms will be an awesome companion robot.
Well… I’m working on a few projects, more artistic (but robotics related).
But, man, you really inspired me with AVA… wanting to build a mid sized companion bot.
See you!
Dickel
Thanks Dickel,
I hope I didn’t embarrass you with my comment. I was drinking that night and got a little over exuberant!
Your work has inspired me for a long time, I’m glad I could return the favor with AVA. I look forward to seeing your take on a companion robot.
Yay!!! The doorbell just rang…my head and ear servos have just arrived!
By the way, great work on that fiberglass, another technique I have always been curious about trying.
Regards,
Martin
She keeps looking better and
She keeps looking better and better!
Do you have something writen for the arms? Or you should start from scratch with that part of the code?
I like the ears they are a lot more functional than what I’m planning in Andar.
I wanted to ask you what motors did you used to improve the default ones in your linxmotion chassis. I think I’ll need to do the same so I get motors with encoders, and with more power since Andar can’t go over a simple flip flop…
I started also working on my sonar ring! I hope you like it (comments and critics are welcome) https://m.facebook.com/nahueltaibo/albums/10153692633464931/
re: looking better
Thank you! I like my robots to look good! When she awakens later this year, I’ll tell her you said so.
I don’t have any code yet for the arms. I’m using a lynxmotion servo controller board that I will send strings to through a serial connection. A single string can contain commands to move multiple servos and time them to complete at the same time.
On the server side, I plan to create new gesture memories that store a series of associated serial commands for a given robot, as the server is steup to support multiple robots. I also plan to associate existing memories with the new gesture memories, and send these gestures down to the robot when applicable. The android will then route these gestures to the servo controller (through an arduino which will simply hand it off). This approach means that I will be able to create and modify new gestures and associate them to other behavior without touching any code, simply by going to the Lucy website and filling in some forms. I want to have a lot of gestures (arms, ears, head, and face together) coordinated with speech, as one of the things this robot will do is standup comedy…hopefully at SXSW in March.
Gestures are really just a start, in the long run, I want to be able to use the arms to grab things. This will require the ear cameras to give a location in 3D of an object to grab. I hope to accomplish that in 2016 but that will be huge challenge. I have a friend that works on learning routines that I think could be suitable for dealing with learning to use the arms to grab things.
For the motors, I’m using the Lynmotion GHM-13 motors. They have the same 50:1 reduction, but have much higher stall torque and somewhat higher rpm. As a result, they are heavier than the stock motors. I wanted the torque.
Your sonar ring is looking really good. You got your ring in tighter by putting it in the neck area. I can’t do that because of the articulated neck. I look forward to seeing it in action.
Nice ears you have there,
Nice ears you have there, Martin, I’ve a question. what actually the ear’s functionality ?
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Project Lucy is Cloud ? Can I use that as an API ?
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Quote: "I plan to utilize her for entertainment and to voice control my TV and household lights"
generally smart home can be controlled using frequency ranges around 315 mhz until 434 mhz, are you planning to use freq transmitter or any others ?
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Talking about frequency, I’ve an idea. what about your robot have capabilities to log your car’s remote control frequency (usually around 433 mhz) then decode it, So, the next time, you can instruct Ava to lock / unlock / turn on or turn off your car (using 433 mhz frequency transmitter) ?
Btw, I guess you have heard a device called “RTL SDR”, this device may be used by a robot to capture frequencies.