Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by edran 3663 days ago
Hey there, Robotical developer here!

What would you like to know in particular?

Edit:

To add more generic info, as it is shown in the video we have quite a few prototypes and we are now working on the final design of each piece of hardware (including the control board).

1 comments

Hi!

I read the description (did not watch video) and wanted to know more about the actual hardware (chip used, GPIO, power consumption, etc).

Project look great, btw. :)

I wrote a bit more detail here https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11903939 but

Still very alpha, specs currently are STM32F446RE (ARM M4), ESP8266 (WiFi, for control from a computer, phone...) and an accelerometer on-board. 9 channel servo control with current sensing, JTAG/USB for programming, i2c and serial interface for talking to it from an arduino, raspberry pi or other microcontroller. We're not expecting to have much GPIO free, and as I said, the firmware it's running is kinda complex, so we're not expecting most people to change it.

How much weight does the frame support? Does the weight need to be centrally located? I'm thinking this would be very nice with one of those small touchscreen displays attached to it.
It's fine with a reasonable amount of weight - I'd have to ask Sandy how much weight Marty can take before he physically can't move, but a touchscreen should be fine, and won't disrupt his walking ability much. Of course you could re-plan his walking with the weight taken into account, but that's quite complex. We'll probably have standard mounting holes on top of his head, so should be a nice and easy hack :D
If you keep answering I'll keep asking! :)

How many degrees of side-to-side motion can the frame take before it falls down? I'm thinking of getting two of these, putting a touchscreen on each one, and having them play joust. The objective would be to touch a dot displayed on the other players touchscreen. The things I come up with...

Well I like the sound of getting another one...

By side-side motion I'm guessing you mean a tipping force - and the the answer would be that he's pretty hard to shove over, at the limit of his lean he's stable, 10 degrees tilt and he'll fall. From fully upright, you need a bit more of a shove - having just pushed one over. Sandy says they can tip themselves if you wobble fast enough.

We're guessing you were thinking of something like this --> http://i.imgur.com/Cmmwu5A.jpg