Hello!

I have a semester project which has to incorporate localization and mapping via LiDar sensor(SLAM), and since I don’t know a lot of practical info about it, I wanted to ask u guys for tips on how to incorporate it or if you have any other advice. I know I shouldn’t start writing my own software and that I need ROS, but i dont have any experience with it. Do i need to make the ROS myself or is that something that you can download? I saw it is made most often through ubuntu, and installing another os on my laptop is something I’d like to avoid since my financial situation didn’t allow me to get a good laptop and I dont think it could handle it. Thanks for the advice!

I have a science competition project where the point of the competition is to develop a small robot that can travel a distance of 7-10m (the exact distance is given during the competition round) and reach that distance as closely and quickly as possible, such that the score is calculated as the distance from target (in cm) + time taken for the robot to reach there.

I've been working with a Pololu 3pi+, which has worked miracles, but rule changes now require AA batteries instead of AAA batteries. Is there any way to possibly modify the 3pi+? Or are there any recommendations on possible robots I could find online similar to the 3pi+, but with AA batteries?

Here is an example of one build: https://youtu.be/m67hCUuZ-9A?si=bkt84zGoBYudGV4M

To keep it short my questions are:

Is it possible to make a remote controlled drone or rc car that can go out in a range of like 30 miles?

If it is, what would I need?

Story/goal: I'm currently in college studying for a degree in game development which is all programming but I was recently made aware that the school has a program called simulation and visualisation that has programming and mechanical/electrical components like making tiny robots and interactive games and so on.

I'm thinking of getting into it and I have project in mind to work on to put my skills into practice as I'm taking the course.

My goal is to make either a drone or rc car that is as small as possible with a range of at least 30 miles but I don't know if it's possible or what I would need, any experts can get me started on the right path?

Background on the project

I am building a robot to solve Rubik's cubes. I found a robot that did it during a summer study abroad trip and noticed that it was using a majorly inefficient solving algorithm. I got permission to look at the source code and try to improve it but was unable to read the garble of C code they had in any meaningful way (it was rough code and it was also labeled and commented in French). As a result when I got back home I started looking into building my own.

We are now several months later and I've made a couple mockups on Wokwi for the Arduino side of things, most of the code for the pi side of things, and mostly done with the 3d modeling for the frame. I also have most of the parts I will need to finish the project. Since I now have most of the parts I want to start testing the Arduino/motor control side of things irl.

I attached a link below with a link to the Wokwi project incase anyone wants to take a look at how I have it set up and play with the simulation. I'm not sure if the speed and pauses I have it set at are fully realistic but at the moment it is pretty consistently under 2 seconds. The actual solution will be generated by a raspberry pi and then sent to the Arduino to execute. Right now I have it set to just run the example solution but I will change it to read a serial input later.

General Problem

The main problem I am running into at the moment is that I don't have much real world experience with micro electronics and none with soldering. I do have a bunch of bread boards and blank pcb boards to either work around learning soldering or to have ready in the event that the project requires it. The power supply I am working with came from an old 3d printer and outputs ≈24V and ≈14.6A (I know this is probably overkill. Please let me know if I really need to step down to something smaller).

More Specific Problem

The specific problem that led me to make this post is that I have no idea how to safely connect the power supply to the stepper drivers. I have concerns about a bread board being able to handle the throughput and don't want to hodgepodge something together soldering and risk electrocuting myself later on some poor excuse of a wiring job.
Can a bread board handle that amount of voltage and amps? Brand: ELEGOO
Do I need to learn how to solder?
Will the pcb boards be able to handle that amount of power? Brand: ELEGOO
Do I need to get a smaller power supply?

Link to Wokwi Project

https://wokwi.com/projects/412370643136920577

I want to participate in Robo Soccer, Robo Race, Robo Sumo for the first time. Suggest some easy books and tips for starting. I have hardly 10 days. About the design and working.

Hey, I have a cobot project that uses nema 17 motors connected to an arduino via a cnc shield. I decided to add an encoder (as5600) to Nema 17, but I don’t understand how to connect it when using a cnc shield. Can you help?

I lost my dog a few months back and am not in physical condition to own another. I purchased a $200 robot dog called Metadog. It helps but I keep reading about the type of battery that powers it, the lithium ion can pose a fire hazard as it ages. I'm aware that Lithium ion batteries power most rechargeable devices. They're everywhere. I'm just wondering exactly how much of a threat this poses. I've googled it several times with different search strings but cannot find a concrete answer. I've also questioned the manufacturer who also refused to present a straight answer. My question is how likely is it that the battery could become a threat over time? Are there safeguards installed to prevent such things from happening? Unfortunately the battery is not removable or replaceable. Should I just get rid of the robot? Again I apologize if this sounds dumb.

Hi everyone, I’m interested in transitioning into the automation/robotics field. I'm a mechanical engineer, and during my studies, I really enjoyed my automation courses. I have a good foundation in control systems and in the dynamics of bodies with various degrees of freedom.

At university, I specialized in fluid dynamics, though my current job doesn’t involve it at all. While I’m reasonably happy in my current role, I often wonder what it would be like to work in automation.

For those already in automation or robotics, what would you recommend I do to improve my skills and increase my chances of landing a job in this area?

I am planning to study my master's in Robotics in Germany. How is the education there? Is it necessary for me to learn germen language?

How is the teaching in Germany? How about the student peofessors relationships? How are exams evaluated?

What is the application timeline for fall intake in Germany? Plus how do I apply for part time jobs and for accommodation there?

Can you suggest some good colleges for robotics..

Hi, I have a few devices comparable to a Raspberry Pi or Jetson Orin nano for example (ai-accelerate compute, Linux), I'd love to leverage them in a robotics arm demo. If you can share a relatively affordable arm assembly with encompassing lab setup, that would be perfect. There are a gazillion low-quality references online, I just want to know your favorite references in this area if you have any.

More info:

I'm looking to make an ML demo that leverages a robotic arm. The capabilities of the arm do not have to be groundbreaking or perfect; it would be preferable that they showcase/emulate professional use cases with my raspberry-pi like devices.

I'm experienced with non-robotics programming, but I haven't done too much device-level embedded work.

I'm looking to leverage a pre-built / assembly robotics arm solution and program it with c, c++, or python, preferably directly from linux. If I need to use a driver board in some capacity, please explain the justification or references so I can invest my research time well. I've done basic servo work in RTOS / bare metal, but not reverse kinematics or related. Can this be reasonably done from a (normal, non real-time) linux system, or will I need a driver board?

In a perfect world, somebody could send me a PDF or blog that says: how to assemble and program this robotics arm kit with a raspberry pi running Linux. Then I'd understand what peripherals I need to drive, power reqs, and what lib / tools I'd use to program the peripherals.

Unfortunately (like most people) my dev time will be constrained, thus I'm looking to leverage assemblies, robotics oriented libraries, and centralized documentation. I could really just use your expertise on the direction I'll start from for quickest results.

Thank you!

I am planning to study my master's in Robotics in Germany. How is the education there? Is it necessary for me to learn germen language?

How is the teaching in Germany? How about the student peofessors relationships? How are exams evaluated?

What is the application timeline for fall intake in Germany? Plus how do I apply for part time jobs and for accommodation there?

Can you suggest some good colleges for robotics..

I have 2 legs, each with 4 FSR402 pressure sensor, is there anyway to connect them neatly to the Teensy4.1 without having 8 jumbled and messy wire that would potentially affect my leg movement due to wiring?

I have a 11V LiPo battery: https://www.hobbyrc.co.uk/gnb-4500mah-3s-60c-md-1-lipo-battery-deans
First thing I need to power Serial Bus Servo Driver Board, Integrates Servo Power Supply And Control Circuit: https://www.waveshare.com/catalog/product/view/id/5832/s/bus-servo-adapter-a/category/563/

The second thing is Teensy4.1

How can I power them both at the same time?

Hey all,

I'm looking for a relatively cheap [$500-$1000] robotic arm that can perform similar functions to my JACO robotic arm, but is not limited by FDA regulations making it so I'm unable to program, control, and use it how I need. I also don't like it needing to be attached to my powerchair to work.

I think it needs a payload of at least 3-5 lbs to be able to slightly adjust my arms and legs when I am lying in bed.

I'm not afraid of assembly and coding when necessary!

Any suggestions or recommendations?

Thanks a bunch!

So I’m pretty new to this sorta stuff, so sorry if I sound a little dumb. I was watching a YouTube video of a guy making Funtime Freddy’s head irl. https://youtu.be/B35MjPvq71o?feature=shared At 0:50-0:58 we see that he’s made it to where his face actually opens up and a piece hooked to a servo motor is revealed. I tried putting a screenshot into Google but nothing.. If anyone could inform me about what it is, it would be great.

Can anyone help with my watering and tomato sowing robot project for starters? First, how do I build it, and what materials are needed? I need code and parts.

I am making a robot that runs on an arduino nano and utilises two continuous servo motors, similar to this project. The author in the project used four cells from a rechargeable 9V battery to power the robot, but in order to get the cells they cracked the case of the battery open. How safe is this method? I've heard a lot about what could go wrong if you accidentally pierce a LiPo battery, so I'm hesitant to follow this step. Should I be wary of this method? If yes, are there any other batteries or powering methods (preferably rechargeable) that can reasonably provide around 5V while remaining well under 5cm? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

So I purchased this robitex Avatar 3 from a friend who frequents auctions and buys storage units.

He had this in inventory for a while.

I thought I might be able to figure it out with my limited knowledge but unfortunately it seems as though you can't purchase the necessary items to make this work without having a government clearance.

It is a unit that can be owned by the public but not sold directly from the company to anyone without a police or military clearance.

I spoke with Robotex name for me that this particular unit was a vendor model that was utilized as a trade show gimmick to draw in potential purchasers for their products.

So it leaves me in quite a predicament to either find a way to alleviate myself of this item that I don't think I'll ever on my own accord be able to figure out how to use or to gain some knowledge from this forum as to how I might go about making it functional it has a 6-prong plug for the battery which is odd I don't know if that can be removed and something else can replace it and then as I've look through the manuals and all the other information online in reference to this item which is few and far between but it seems as though there's some aftermarket controls that could work in order to control the unit with all its functionality otherwise I would just be curious to know where I might be able to sell this item.

Can't seem to attach photos to this post so or maybe try in the comments to attach them I'm not sure how to go about that also it came with a long range observation antenna with a radio channel hookup to observe what the unit is observing but unfortunately not to be able to control it would first need to power on the unit which I have been able to do because it didn't come with batteries.

Or a remote as I stated so if anybody has any interest in this or could help me figure out what to do with it I would really appreciate it at this point I'm kind of over it and if somebody else thinks that they can make something of it that's fine I would just want to recoup the original purchase price on it which I will discuss with any potential buyers.

Thanks in advance and I appreciate it if this post isn't allowed please do delete.

I'm going to participate in a sumo robot competition, the robot has to be 3kg 20cm cubed dimension limit, its on magnetic arena. No moving parts other than drivetrain. Robots start facing a random orientation and 1 of 4 spots on the disk arena (0 or 90 or 180 or 270 degrees) chosen randomnly. My strategy is high acceleration to gain more energy to be able to knock any opponent after quickly finding the opponent.

Case A (high budget):

• I'm currently looking at the company maxon and a maxon gearbox in brushed motors.
• My question is the following: Would a brushless from maxon with a planetary gearbox be as good, better or worse? Both resulting in similar RPMs after gearing. I'm planning to reduce the RPM to between 1000-1500rpm.
• Also, any recommendations for good motor specs or companies to look at?
• My budget for the motors is under $1200 due to my possible university grant.

Case B (grant gets refused):

• I was looking at those amazon planetary gearmotor or 550 brushless with 550 sized gearbox.
• Budget in this case would be under $500.

I know that brushless motors have higher rpm and lower torque, but how much lower torque?

Advice and help would be greatly appreciated!
Thank you.

Hi everyone, as per the title I am looking for a wrist mount for the Franka Emika robot, that will allow me to mount the intel realsense with a bit of a canted perspective. I am looking for something like the DROID setup or this one but they are made for different cameras.

If anyone knows where I can find something similar for the intel it would be very much appreciated. I do not have any 3d modelling/CAD skills, so something ready to use would be better.

Thanks for reading! :)

I'm 15 years old and turning 16 soon. Currently a sophomore in high school and accepting any help whatsoever. I go to a fairly competitive school with about 900 kids in my year. I love math and STEM and hearing about anything in the field. Right now I'm taking Multivariable Calculus at a local community college after finishing Calculus AB/BC. I want to get into robotics but I just don't know where to start. I have basic Python knowledge and I'm taking a Coursera course: Intro to Machine Learning by Andrew Ng. Mostly just because I'm interested and it looks cool. I see cool stuff on here all the time and all of these complicated terms and drafts and designs and I kinda just wanted to know how people get started. I think I have some ideas like taking an Arduino course or figuring out how circuits and stuff work, but realistically I would like some advice maybe from some more experienced people before I fully commit a lot of time and energy to anything. I have a lot of schoolwork and homework because I'm taking 6 AP classes and two classes at my community college, so I want to be smart about how I spend my time. Also, my parents aren't a huge fan of spending money on like, anything so whatever I do I'm trying to do for free, which shouldn't be too hard because nowadays the internet is huge and knowledge is everywhere. I found some MITx courses on introduction to circuits and electronics which I might take later but it is a 4 month course so I need to know if I can commit to it. Lastly, I need some cool extracurricular activities to put on my college apps in a year or two. A lot of kids at my school are going crazy making stuff like self-driving go-karts and self-driving RC Planes and frankly, I feel like I'm falling behind a lot. Making something like an MIT Maker Portfolio would be great, kinda like the one Liong Ma made in 2023. I am not gonna lie it was very impressive and partially what inspired me to do this. I know it's a long shot but I have two years before College apps are due and I am trying to make something as good as that. I linked the video below. Anyways, any help is greatly appreciated, have a good day!

Liong Ma MIT Maker Portfolio [Accepted] - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJtl-fRrP3k

The Pepper robot we have is a Python Pepper robot that only answers to the Choregraphe plateform, and I need to use it for a research experiment.

I had to tweak the experiment a few times and succeded in reducing the participation of the robot to the litteral bare minimum so there are not too many risks of Pepper misbehaving (there have been so many issues in the past year, you have no idea). This means that right now, I just want Pepper to stand there, not speak, and not turn around. Its arms and head can move, but it's ok if they don't. The wheels are the only thing that is really important. I've tried everything I could think of and looked around, but I can't find anything on stopping the wheels. Would someone happens to know what to do?

Thank you in advance!!

Hi, I’m currently coursing product and graphic design in my university. What I really want to be is a maker who builds creative robots, machines and gadgets. I initially thought it would be a good path to learn design as to stimulate creative thinking (and I really like to draw, so it seemed like the perfect fit). But as I’m going on through the classes, I’m becoming more unsure of my choice. It’s more artistic, like playing with crayons as a child (It’s kinda fun, but it’s not really in line with my current goals) I’m considering switching to mechanical engineering, it appears to offers a very good technical base for building things. I don’t think much about a future career, I just want to educate myself in order to achieve that dream of being a maker that can give life to his ideas by building them.

Is there a better path that I didn’t consider??

What do you guys think??

Thanks for reading

Hey guys ,there is an idea to implement a project of a robot manipulator with voice control, motor-reducers on nema17 and a wave reducer with intermediate rolling elements will be used. Are encoders needed on nema17? What is better to implement this on an arduino or rasberry pi, or on a combination of them? Thanks for answers

I am researching the effectiveness of an ODrive S1 in my robot build, and I will be using a 48-volt motor. However, I am wondering if a LiPo battery, feeding the Odrive S1 with 22.4 volts could then allow the Odrive to power a motor with up to 48 volts. Are there any limitations to how much voltage an ODrive can handle for input/output, and would the ODrive be able to step up the voltage to 48 volts from 22.4?

Here's my tentative study plan for MS in CS for Autonomous Systems & Robotics. Based on your industry experience please provide feedback if this plan covers everything related to autonomy. If not, what's missing? I can only fit 10 courses in this plan.

1. Geometric and Probabilistic Methods in Computer Science: Introduction to applied mathematics for computer scientists. Specific topics include discrete and continuous random variables (including transformation and sampling), information theory, Huffman coding, Markov processes, linear systems theory, Fourier transforms, principal component analysis, and wavelet transforms.
2. Algorithms-Data Structure: Study of data structures and algorithms and mathematics needed to analyze their time and space complexity. Topics include: amortized analysis and self-adjusting data structures for trees and priority queues, graphing algorithms, greedy and divide-and-conquer paradigms.
3. Advanced Operating Systems: Theory of design of operating systems. Modeling, simulation, synchronization, concurrency, process hierarchies, networks and distributed systems.
4. Introduction to Parallel Processing: Graduate-level class in parallel programming systems, including programming and systems issues of shared memory machines, distributed memory machines (e.g. clusters), co-processor systems (GPUs), and Big Data systems. Introduction to parallel scientific and data intensive programming architectures and systems. Performance issues, speed-up and efficiency. Parallel programming issues and models: control parallel, data parallel and data flow. Programming assignments on massively parallel machines.
5. Principles and Applications of Big Data: This course explores data analysis and management techniques, which applied to massive datasets are the cornerstone that enable real-time decision making in distributed environments, business intelligence, and scientific discovery at large scale. In particular, we examine the map-reduce parallel computing paradigm and associated technologies such as distributed file systems, no-SQL databases, and stream computing engines. Additionally we review machine learning methods that make possible the efficient analysis of large volumes of data in near real time.
6. Introduction to Machine Learning: Introduction to principles and practice of systems that improve performance through experience. Topics include statistical learning framework, supervised and unsupervised learning. Bayesian analysis, time series analysis, reinforcement learning, performance evaluation and empirical methodology; design tradeoffs.
7. Digital Image Processing: Introduction to fundamentals of digital image processing. Specific topics include grey level histograms, geometric/grey level transformations, linear systems theory, Fourier transforms, frequency domain filtering, wavelet transforms, image compression, edge detection, color vision, and binary image morphology.
8. Principles of Artificially Intelligent Machines: Survey of artificial intelligence exclusive of pattern recognition. Heuristic search techniques, game playing, mechanical theorem proving, additional topics selected by the instructor.
9. Robot Engineering: Robot geometry, resolution and repeatability, kinematic design of robots, Denavit-Hartenberg homogeneous transformations, direct and inverse; kinematics and solutions, motion trajectories, differential tracking, force and compliant analyses, dynamics, control and programming.
10. Optimal Control and Estimation: This course is an introduction to optimal control and estimation. The following topics will be covered: the mathematics of control and estimation, optimal trajectories and neighboring-optimal solutions, optimal state estimation, and estimation strategies.

#Robotics #AV #AI #MachineLearning #ComputerVision

Hey everyone, sorry for the long write up, thanks in advance for reading. I'm a mechatronics engineer looking for a project to do on the side. I'm still fairly new in my career and I want to get some projects going to keep learning and have something fun to tinker with. Also hoping I can show these off to future employers to supplement my resume. The thing is, I haven't really delved into the world of hobby projects before and I'm wondering if I'm trying to do too much with this idea for a project.

The idea I had was to build a little AMR wheeled robot that I could put a computer vision system on so it could to follow me around on its own. I'd also like to be able to drive it around with a joystick or game controller of some kind. I know the answer to this question depends heavily on the person doing the project and their experience so may be hard to answer, so let me give you some background about what I've worked with before.

As I said I'm a mechatronics engineer with about 4 years experience, all at one job. I work for an integrated servo manufacturer so my professional experience is all from the component supplier perspective; motors and related mechanical and electrical components like sensors, actuators, etc. that you would use with motors in an automated system. Most of my work has to do with industrial automation so I'm familiar with various comms protocols like CAN, ethernetIP, ethercat, RS232/485, modbus, etc. I've also used I2C and SPI back in school.

I've done enough programming to have a good foundation but I wouldn't call myself a programmer. I've used C++/C, ladder logic, a little python, and a little assembly.

Does this seem like a reasonable project to take on?

And to follow that up, I'd like this to be a little better than hobby grade since at that level a lot of the work is done for you. I don't know if there is any middle ground between that and professional quality, industrial level hardware though so I'm not sure what to search for. Any suggestions on things like microcontrollers or vision systems?

EDIT: I'm pretty confident about building the drive system, frame, and the joystick control, it's really the vision system and controller aspect that I have no reference for.

I am currently working on a project where the goal is to design and control an autonomous mobile robot for warehouse applications, similar to kiva robots used in amazon warehouses. I plan to use a raspberry pi 4 as the main computer running SLAM and general control algorithms for the motors and another microcontroller to directly communicate with the motor driver and send necessary feedback to the pi like sensor readings. The main job for the microcontroller would only be driving the motors and sending sensor feedback to the pi.

Components connected to the Microcontroller include 3x motor drivers, 4x ultrasonic sensors, and an IMU.
I am not yet sure about the communicating protocol Ill use but it will most probably be serial.
I have worked on multiple projects using arduinos and Teensy but this is my first time working with a raspberry pi.

Which controllers should I consider?

Hey all,

I'm starting to understand the basics around robotics (I think!) and have just purchased a course on Udemy to help me better understand kinematics and the like, however the idea I have is for a robot that interacts with humans and therefore needs additional safety precautions to be taken into consideration.

I've got a 3D printer and a CNC machine and they both have limit switches to prevent overshoot/damage. This makes sense because it's a hard stop in case of the machine attempting to act outside its parameters, and definitely looks like something I should be using.

At the same time, I see a lot of talk about encoders on the servos or stepper motors so you know exactly where the horn/spindle is at all times.

I'm wondering if knowing the location of the spindle/horn is enough to calculate whether a machine is attempting to operate outside the limits of its environment, or whether the idea of an encoder is "just" to ensure that when you do your calculations you know where you're starting from and what the progress is?

I am a mech engineer so i dont know much about servos, but it will be used to control an robotic arm, will PID control be needed?