Seeing stuff like this, I am wondering why the hell I am doing software. This is much cooler than CRUD for DB data nth time.
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CARA 2.0 – “I Built a Better Robot Dog”
41–50 of 72 posts
Re: CARA 2.0 – “I Built a Better Robot Dog”
#42Rewinding the motors manually to increase torque is cheating if you can't scale that up and keep the cost down. And, if you can scale that up, then why even mention it? It's not relevant.
Yeah agree. Having to rewind the motors just adds yet another task to the list for someone trying to build this thing.
Also BLDC based motors in bots seem to be popular now, used to be steppers and harmonic drives from what I remember reading.
Idk why electrostatic actuators aren't getting more popular like HASEL and a few papers on ones using fiber pumps come out recently. I suppose the danger that the high voltages present hmmm.
But surely we can replicate muscle fiber actions magnetically, just need some sort of crazy micro manufacturing process to make the magnets.
Re: CARA 2.0 – “I Built a Better Robot Dog”
#43All I can think of is slippage and the lack of precision though I know I’m wrong because he spends a significant part of a previous video explaining why it isn’t an issue.
Re: CARA 2.0 – “I Built a Better Robot Dog”
#44Seeing stuff like this, I am wondering why the hell I am doing software. This is much cooler than CRUD for DB data nth time.
You could do non-CRUD software instead.
Re: CARA 2.0 – “I Built a Better Robot Dog”
#453 DOF per leg, so it needs 12 motors and controllers. Getting that under $1000 is nice. Here's the US$18 motor: [1] Those things are getting really cheap. He did have to rewind it, though, for more turns with thinner wire. The manufacturer mentions that you can order with "custom Kv", which means you might be able to get a different winding from the factory if you order a reasonable quantity. Especially if you tell t…
"Temperature feedback would help if this thing has to operate for extended periods." Rather than thermistors all over the place, perhaps an onboard program could calculate motor temperature by integrating current sent to each over time—assumed some degree of cooling (and perhaps here a single temperature sensor might measure ambient temperature of the environment… or could just assume "indoor temperature").
Train it like Disney’s Olaf where it can adjust how it walks/stands to keep motor temperature under control.
Re: CARA 2.0 – “I Built a Better Robot Dog”
#46As it so happens 'cara' https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/cara#Irish is the Irish [Gaelic] word for 'friend' (probably related to words like Italian 'caro' etc.) so CARA is not a bad name for a robot dog!
Re: CARA 2.0 – “I Built a Better Robot Dog”
#47its a fantastic achievement and the guy seems amazingly talented, is it a big achievement? leaves me feeling flat... maybe im just jealous lol.
Re: CARA 2.0 – “I Built a Better Robot Dog”
#48Rewinding the motors manually to increase torque is cheating if you can't scale that up and keep the cost down. And, if you can scale that up, then why even mention it? It's not relevant.
I'm sure he could contact a supplier that would change the windings for the same price if he went into production mode. So doing this for his prototype doesn't seem unreasonable. He's under a massive time crunch per his school semester to get this project out the door.
Re: CARA 2.0 – “I Built a Better Robot Dog”
#49Seeing stuff like this, I am wondering why the hell I am doing software. This is much cooler than CRUD for DB data nth time.
I loved robotics and participated in robots programs all through high school and college.
The answer is that jobs mostly don't exist for this kind of work.
The robotics jobs that do exist are basically large manufacturing robot development (think fixed place arms in car production), warehouse automation (amazon, etc), autonomous driving (originally agricultural, but now also things like waymo/tesla), and DoD style work.
And even then - the number of real positions is minuscule compared to other software roles.
So instead I build robots in my personal time as an expensive hobby (and man is it expensive...).
I'm somewhat jealous of the folks who've managed to monetize that expensive hobby by filming it and putting it on youtube, but I've also seen exactly how much time/effort/luck goes into being successful there - and I think it'd kill any joy I have for it.
Re: CARA 2.0 – “I Built a Better Robot Dog”
#50Earlier quoted context omitted.
"Temperature feedback would help if this thing has to operate for extended periods." Rather than thermistors all over the place, perhaps an onboard program could calculate motor temperature by integrating current sent to each over time—assumed some degree of cooling (and perhaps here a single temperature sensor might measure ambient temperature of the environment… or could just assume "indoor temperature").
I would rather just have temperature sensors over the place. More reliable.
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