Weekly Robotics #168
I found Unitree’s quadruped method for going down the stairs hilarious. I bet it saves lots of development time! The most clicked link last week was my blog post on 3.5 years of robotics consulting with 14.0% opens. As usual, the publication of the week section is manned by Rodrigo.
How To Build Your Own CNC Machine From Scratch
Here is a DIY guide to making a CNC router with many 3D printed parts that is based on a Makita router. The repository above contains very detailed instructions, BOM, and a very permissive licence.
ARviz
ARviz is an AR-based visualization tool for ROS created by researchers from Monash University. According to this paper it supports displaying the following visualizations: TF, MarkerArray, PoseStamed, 2D Arrow. According to the description in the repository, you will need to build this project on Windows with Unity.
Why Facebook (Or Meta) Is Making Tactile Sensors for Robots
Meta is looking into mass-producing tactile sensors for robots operating on the same principle as GelSight that we’ve covered on some occasions. The gist of it is that there is a camera looking at a deformable surface with a pattern, and by observing the deflection you can infer the shape of the object you are touching. The project repository contains the files that should allow you to build one yourself and a firmware binary.
Curves and Surfaces
Bartosz Ciechanowski has another blog post with stunning, interactive visuals. This time you can dive into the world of curves and surfaces. If it’s autumn where you are I would recommend grabbing a cup of a hot beverage of your choice and dedicating an evening to go through this write-up.
Mars Perseverance Rover: Driving Farther and Faster With Autonomous Navigation and Helicopter Scouting
Did you know that back in September Perseverance had autonomously traversed 167m in a single SOL? Here is a video showing the auto-nav drive.
Robots to clean NYC skyscrapers
This article describes cooperation between Skyline Robotics and a building maintenance service provider in New York. The main idea behind the concept seems to be retrofitting maintenance elevators with two robot arms by Kuka. I never looked into this use case for robotics but it appears to be that this idea could use a bit smaller number of degrees of freedom.
Publication of the Week - MetroLoc: Metro Vehicle Mapping and Localization with LiDAR-Camera-Inertial Integration (2021)
The train positioning is a crucial factor for railroad control safety and monitoring. One of the most used sensors for position tracking is the balise, a transponder placed between the rails of the railroad that triggers a signal whenever the train passes. This paper proposes a real-time positioning method fusing IMU, LiDAR, and Visual inertial odometry. The system not only offers a greater level of robustness and accuracy but also gathers information for future predictive maintenance.
WR Community Meeting #14 - Aerial Robotics With the Crazyflie (18th Nov)
The Crazyflie is an open source lightweight quadcopter developed by Bitcraze located in Sweden. This year is Bitcraze’s 10th anniversary and in those years the platform has evolved from a hobbyist-only platform to being used by universities and research departments all over the world. In this talk Kimberly McGuire will present the Bitcraze ecosystem and go over multirotor fundamentals, positioning with Lighthouse and existing ROS integrations.
Robots Work
Canoe milling with Kuka robot
Here is a massive Kuka arm milling a 5-meter long canoe mold out of MDF.