Weekly Robotics #113
Image Credit: Ascento
This week we are heavy on legged robots, starting with Ascento crashing a fair bit, then going into iCub developments by IIT, showcasing an open design 3D printed quadruped and finally covering a paper describing fundamental usage of springs in legged locomotion. Enjoy! The most clicked link last week was the Open Source leg with 10.0% opens.
Ascento Fails
Engineers behind Ascento, a wheeled-legged-balancing robot, had published a ‘fail’ compilation showing the robot crashing a lot. I appreciate them doing it, as I feel as roboticsists we are not sharing these types of things enough.
Visualising Lidar and Radar in Virtual Reality
Roland Meertens had developed a 3D data visualiser for Virtual Reality. In this short article, Roland is describing his experience visualising both LiDAR and radar data in a self-driving car dataset.
This Transforming Rover Can Explore the Toughest Terrain
A very interesting robot concept, I appreciate how nicely this robot is put together. Here is the description from the article that catches the spirit of it: “The rover is actually made of a pair of two-wheeled rovers, each called Axel. To divide and conquer, the rover stops, lowers its chassis and anchors it to the ground before essentially splitting in two. With the rear half of DuAxel (short for “dual-Axel”) firmly in place, the forward half undocks and rolls away on a single axle. All that connects the two halves now is a tether that unspools as the lead axle approaches the hazard and rappels down the slope, using instruments stowed in its wheel hub to study a scientifically attractive location that would normally be out of reach”. The video featured in the article is well worth the wathc!
ROS2 Tutorials
I have recently come across this blog post series by Edouard, that looks like a swift and succinct introduction to ROS2
iCub Reactive Walking
YouTube (Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia)
This video shows the latest results in the whole-body locomotion control of the humanoid robot iCub achieved by the Dynamic Interaction Control line. In particular, the iCub now keeps the balance while walking and receiving pushes from an external user.
3D Printed Arduino Powered Quadruped Robot
Let’s switch gears to quadrupeds now. This instructable by Technovation contains information on building a quadruped based on 12 servos and an Arduino Uno with a sensor shield.
Publication of the Week - Three Uses for Springs in Legged Locomotion (1990)
This paper was recommended by Sam, one of the members of WR’s Patreon Slack. It describes how damping can be used in legged locomotion, providing a good mechanical background for anyone looking into developing quadrupeds. What I like about this publication is how clearly it describes the concepts, making it digestible, even for someone who has only basic experience with mechanics.
Sponsored
Huge thanks to all of the Weekly Robotics supporters helping this project through Patreon and the following business partners:
Job Seekers
In the issue #83 I’ve started this section to try to help out those looking for work in the times of pandemic. If you are currently looking for work then feel free to send me your details in the same format as you can see in the entries below.
Name: Sergey Worm
Location: Barcelona, Spain
Skills: C/C++, assembler (RISC-V, ARM, x86-32, x86-64, SPARC), python, RTOS, ROS, linux kernel, system software, embedded software, virtualization, robotics
Profile: I am a software engineer with big experience in different areas — telecommunication, Linux kernel, device drivers, HW and SW virtualization. Now I’m interested in Realtime OSes, embedded and robotics projects. I am interested in low-level tasks in robotics - robot creation, motor control, device drivers, realtime tasks, robot motion control
Social Profiles: LinkedIn
Email: sergey.worm@gmail.com
Website: wrmlab.org