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Re: undefined

#21

Post by NalNezumi »

nojvek wrote: post #17
NalNezumi wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Depends on what part of robotics you want to explore. You can get a quadruped with an arm for around 400-1000$ if you don't mind it being small, and with a limited set of sensors. It becomes expensive when you want an robot arm with high dexterity and torque-sensors, which is often a requirement for some tasks, but position-based control can be done on cheaper models.

Are you taking about the unitree quadrupeds? Quadruped with an arm for <$1000 would be a steal. Got any recommendations?

With emphasis on "small" I got one called XGO mini 2 (and 1) that I sponsored on Kickstarter, which had it at half the price (400$ ish) but it's around $800 here[1].

It runs on Raspberry Pi which is a big +, as version 1 was running on custom hardware. People had to plug a Jetson Nano or other device to run their code (such as this [2]). It comes with their own App, connected via bluetooth, for simple commands too.

I (and most kickstart backers) funded/bought it for either hobby or research purpose (some backers were from labs) so if you're looking for *practical* application this one might be a bit too weak.

But version 1&2 did come with a processing power that could run YOLO detection so there's enough power to test things out and learn.

[1] https://www.robotshop.com/products/xgo-mini-2-quadruped-robo... [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqfwCwu4-Rc

Re: undefined

#22

Post by ChatGTP »

taneq wrote: post #5

The Portal-themed animation really sells it as a step in the right direction. ;) Seriously though, I’m excited to see where this goes. AI is progressing so fast now that newcomers loudly proclaim “AI is dead” and “going nowhere” when they haven’t seen SotA beaten for a whole month, because they don’t remember the times when a small improvement in a decade was big news.

You know where it's going dude...to the military and law enforcement. It's completely naive to think otherwise. Advanced robotics might be used to unpack your dishwasher, or save kittens stuck in trees, but we know where the $$$ lies...

Re: undefined

#23

Post by joshvm »

aliljet wrote: post #4

Robotics is such a lovely world. For the hobbyists, I'm really curious about how to get the home-brew robotics training lab working at home? The last time I reviewd this, you'd spend thousands of dollars just to get a reasonable robotic arm. Right now, if work is relegated to the rich research departments of mega corporations, this certainly doesn't seem more interesting than a corporate press release..

Someone else mentioned sims - Mujoco is pretty common and you'll want to learn ROS anyway. Also robotics doesn't mean just arms, you can play with navigation and perception algorithms with a single camera.

Good off-the-shelf arms are low thousands last time I looked. You can DIY for $1-2k https://www.anninrobotics.com/robot-kits

Re: undefined

#24

Post by falcor84 »

ChatGTP wrote: post #18

Why does Google actually build stuff like this? What is their actual end game and how does it relate to what they actually do as a business? They're an advertising company with a mission to "organize the worlds information", pivoting to robots? Do they need robots to organize the worlds information? No idea how big of a breakthrough this is, but it is absolutely undeniable that Googles PR team is going wild on anythi…

> Do they need robots to organize the worlds information?

Well, my bookshelves are a mess and I'd be ok with getting a robot to help organize my information, if I had some assurances that it won't kill me, or at the very least a "Don't be evil" clause.

Re: undefined

#25

Post by alphabetting »

ChatGTP wrote: post #18

Why does Google actually build stuff like this? What is their actual end game and how does it relate to what they actually do as a business? They're an advertising company with a mission to "organize the worlds information", pivoting to robots? Do they need robots to organize the worlds information? No idea how big of a breakthrough this is, but it is absolutely undeniable that Googles PR team is going wild on anythi…

google runs on ad money but they're also in the business of acquiring elite ML talent and publishing sota research is one of the main drivers in accomplishing that.

Re: undefined

#26

Post by empath-nirvana »

NalNezumi wrote: post #19

This seem like an cool upgrade from RT1, judging from the result. It seems to now also output the delta of the end-effector pose, which was previously handled by a different motion planner. It does seem like this work (and a lot of robot learning works) are still stuck on position/velocity control and not impedance control. Which is essentially output where to go, either closed-loop with a controller or open-loop wit…

Seems to me that the way to architect this is to have multiple quasi independent embedded controllers at different levels. For example, you might have 3 independent finger controllers, managed by a hand controller, and so on, on up to the highest level LLM that drives everything. So you have an LLM that just says, pick up the green can, issues whatever structured data needs to go to the arm controller and on down the line, going to down to more real-time and less high level processing as you go.

As a human, I don't understand the detailed micro-second by microsecond movements my fingers have to do to pick something up, let alone how I'm touch-typing this sentence. It just sort of "happens" when I want it to happen. I don't think you need to design a robotic AI that understands how every part of it's mechanics work. The fingers don't need to know how the feet work, for example. There should be semi-autonomous "intelligence" embedded throughout the system, with only necessary feedback being fed back up.

Re: undefined

#27

Post by falcor84 »

Jeff_Brown wrote: post #14

If it was tethered to the floor, I would trust a good LLM in 2023 with folding laundry, but very little else. No dishes. No letting kids or pets bear it. No plumbing. I wouldn't even let it wander around cleaning stuff, because I'd expect it to knock over things.

I personally am less concerned about knocking things over, which is a thing we already trust vacuum robots with; rather I'd be much more concerned about the robots accidentally (or intentionally?) "folding" my kids or pets.

Re: undefined

#28

Post by ChatGTP »

alphabetting wrote: post #25
ChatGTP wrote: post #18

Why does Google actually build stuff like this? What is their actual end game and how does it relate to what they actually do as a business? They're an advertising company with a mission to "organize the worlds information", pivoting to robots? Do they need robots to organize the worlds information? No idea how big of a breakthrough this is, but it is absolutely undeniable that Googles PR team is going wild on anythi…

google runs on ad money but they're also in the business of acquiring elite ML talent and publishing sota research is one of the main drivers in accomplishing that.

ML talent for? There search is absolute trash, so maybe they could work to use ML to solve that?

I'm so sick of Google I just paid for Kagi.

Re: undefined

#29

Post by mhb »

aliljet wrote: post #4

Robotics is such a lovely world. For the hobbyists, I'm really curious about how to get the home-brew robotics training lab working at home? The last time I reviewd this, you'd spend thousands of dollars just to get a reasonable robotic arm. Right now, if work is relegated to the rich research departments of mega corporations, this certainly doesn't seem more interesting than a corporate press release..

Impressive dog:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6zPvT0ig1VM

Re: undefined

#30

Post by RecycledEle »

empath-nirvana wrote: post #26
NalNezumi wrote: post #19

This seem like an cool upgrade from RT1, judging from the result. It seems to now also output the delta of the end-effector pose, which was previously handled by a different motion planner. It does seem like this work (and a lot of robot learning works) are still stuck on position/velocity control and not impedance control. Which is essentially output where to go, either closed-loop with a controller or open-loop wit…

Seems to me that the way to architect this is to have multiple quasi independent embedded controllers at different levels. For example, you might have 3 independent finger controllers, managed by a hand controller, and so on, on up to the highest level LLM that drives everything. So you have an LLM that just says, pick up the green can, issues whatever structured data needs to go to the arm controller and on down the…

I agree. We need feedback loops on each joint that keep doing what they are doing until a higher feedback loop decides to change things.

For example, as I enter this text, most of my fingers are holding the phone and do not need to be told to keep holding it.

The low level controllers should also be able to respond to simple things.

It's like when I get hurt, my hand yanks back before my brain realizes what has happened. Or when I almost trip and my legs correct before I realized it happened.

Low level tasks should be at a low level and not bother the higher professors.

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