Roboscraptor

Update 10/23/17 - 8:05 AM

Hey everyone! It’s good to be back.

So I’m looking over my disassembled Roboraptor, and am going to give “her” another go when the weather gets better (most likely next year...).

I’ve done quite a number on the leg motors, having crimped/hot-glued them. I think I’ll just use the original motors again (and properly re-solder them).

Also, I plan to eventually replace the plastic leg pieces I unintentionally destroyed. If that ultimately means Roboraptor will have mismatched legs, that’s okay- I can always repaint them.

In other news (yes, there’s more,) I have changed my mind about neural networks and am now currently experimenting with spiking neural networks (SNNs)- quite unlike traditional ANNs, they are more biologically accurate. And since researchers are programming SNNs on microcontrollers(!), I have decided I might be able to use one of my new-or-newly-repaired Arduino Unos instead of a MicroPython board. Exciting stuff!

I’ll keep you all posted on future updates.

Edit 1 - 3:42 PM

I've also decided to research possible Utahraptor behaviors to make Roboraptor act more like a real raptor might have. However, I'm still keeping one aspect of Jurassic Park/World velociraptors (and possibly real Utahraptors): Roboraptor might one day have a "pack"! I have one potential "pack member," and I also have another in mind...

But that will be for a future time.

Edit 2- 11:32 PM

Hmm, I didn’t find a lot on theorized Utahraptor behavior... maybe a “more realistic” robot Utahraptor is beyond reach right now.

Oh well. Yay, creative license!

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Update 3/29/17 - 9:15 AM

Hi everyone! I'm finally able to upload the video that sw0rdm4n requested. I must apologize in advance for the watermark covering the video. I don't think Windows 8.1 has a free Movie Maker version, so I had to download a different movie editor online.

I had also completely forgotten about another editor I could've tried. D'oh!

Oh, well. Hope you guys enjoy the video!

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Update: 3/28/17 - 10:23 AM

So I have recently looked into behavior-based robotics- a field everyone else in the AI field seems to have moved away from. After reading a Quora answer by Steve Grand (an A.I. researcher, and the same guy who brought us the Creatures artificial life games,) I realize now that ANNs pretty much only recognize patterns, and therefore don't meet all of the requirements for being a generic unit of intelligence.

So right now, for the upteenth time, I have again changed my plans for my AI architecture (yes, I am seriously that indecisive!). Behavior-based robotics is now the way I'm going, with a sprinkle of the Global Workspace theory and a memory, of course! :-) Edited 3/28/17 3:08 PM

Edit 2: 3/28/2017 10:47 PM

Sorry everyone, I'll have to work on the video tomorrow, since it's getting late here. I'll make sure it gets posted sometime tomorrow.

Good night, everyone! Thank you for your continued interest.

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The title, I am aware, is quite misleading... the robot hardly uses any scrap parts outside of the RoboRaptor itself (save for some motors from a fairly-recently bought kit). "She" (I think my robots are more personable, but not too much so, with an assigned "gender"... and yes, I know it doesn't really have a gender) doesn't have a name yet, but when I find one, I will change this page's title accordingly.

Now onto the *real* interesting stuff- the building of the actual robot. I don't remember too much about what I've done to "her" in the past, but I will recount what I've done to the fullest extent possible.

First, I took RoboRaptor's chassis apart, starting with her legs. I then removed the two halves of RoboRaptor's body... and left her like that for months, thinking about how to hack her from that point on (1st attached pic). I have just recently come back to work on RoboRaptor more, thinking I could somehow get her to walk better (whether aesthetically or efficiently). At the time I tried removing the brackets from the plastic pieces inside Roboraptor's legs, and have replaced them with springs that I got from detaching the pieces that held the legs on (2nd attached pic).

I then (foolishly) sanded down some of the screw holes on the pieces that held the legs on, trying to see if I could attach the legs in a different way (3rd attached pic)... Long story short, it didn't work the way I wanted it to (4th attached pic. Painful, ain't it? ;-) ). In the meantime, I detached RoboRaptor's circuit board, initially wanting to replace it with an Arduino Uno (but since I need a little more computing power, I am now going to use a MicroPython board. Hope it works!).

I then tried to make several cams, none of which worked out that well. I plan now on trying to put her legs back on those plastic pieces, which were meant to hold the legs on in the first place. Hopefully, it won't be too painful...

While that was going on, I actually managed to replace two of RoboRaptor's on-board motors with medium-speed, medium-torque motors from the RadioShack Robotics Gear Motor Kit (5th attached pic)! I have recently received my MicroPython board, and plan on testing it with RoboRaptor's body before putting an AI "mind" into it (and no, I'm not expecting it to be human-level). More info (hopefully) coming soon- Stay tuned!