Project Planning: Scheduling & Estimating Activity Duration

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project schedule

Successful projects tend to have schedules that work (as well as budget, but that is for another time). This schedule should be made at the start of the project and actively maintained throughout the project. On large projects this may mean having a dedicated person to maintain and track the schedule. I would generally recommend […]

Automate 2023

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Automate 2023

Automate is my favorite trade show to attend each year. While there are many conferences that are academic in nature (IROS, ICRA, etc..), this show is geared to actually building and deploying of robotics. Over 725 vendors show up to exhibit to show off everything from motors, fleet management software, grippers, wheels, UGVs, IMRs, bearings, […]

Drone Sensor Payload Design Hands On

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Drone Flying

This post is part of the Hands on Robot Design series. See here for the full list of posts/topics https://robotsforroboticists.com/hands-on-ground-robot–drone-design-series for information on mechanical, electrical, motion control, computing, sensors, and more. Once we had a drone we needed the sensors and computer to make this drone operate. Keeping with the idea of trying to make […]

Drone Design Hands On

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Drone Flying

This post is part of the Hands on Robot Design series. See here for the full list of posts/topics https://robotsforroboticists.com/hands-on-ground-robot–drone-design-series for information on mechanical, electrical, motion control, computing, sensors, and more. The drones designed for the DARPA SubT challenge needed to be great at flying through tunnels and exploring unknown subterranean environments. The plan was […]

Quadruped Control Full Stack Development Kit

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Just sharing this announcement with the Robots for Roboticists community. I have not had a chance to use this yet. I know I generally only share things that I have used, but I felt this was worth sharing. If you try it out, let us know how it works. Announcing Quad-SDK! A full-stack quadruped control […]

Robotics Dictionary

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This is functional dictionary for roboticists, and not a proper dictionary. The goal of making this is to define terms from within the research and engineering world in an easy to understand manner. Try to read through this list to test your robotics terminology. This is a work in progress and I will be continuing […]

Setup & Configuring a Copley Motor Controller

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I generally try and use Copley motor controllers whenever I can. This is for several reasons including: Reliability Linux software API (for a small fee) which can easily be wrapped for using in ROS Copley, if you are reading this you should make CML available to everyone for free… Same software API for a wide […]

Wireless Radio Selection

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router and access point

Radios are used for different things; data, audio, video, etc.. In robotics they are most often used for transmitting data wirelessly. There are many different types of radios available to choose for your robotic system. There are probably hundreds of individual radios to choose from. This post will look at some of the different categories. […]

Fiber Optic Gyro (FOG) Teardown

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KVH Fiber Optic Gyro

I recently had an opportunity to take apart a Fiber Optic Gyro (FOG). I have always known the theory behind a FOG and that there was a fiber optic cable that was used as the sensing element, however I was not prepared to actually see the fiber optic cable in the sensor. The unit I […]

Sensor Payload – Hands On Ground Robot Design

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sensor payload

This post is part of the Hands on Ground Robot Design series. See here for the full list of posts/topics https://robotsforroboticists.com/hands-on-ground-robot–drone-design-series for information on mechanical, electrical, motion control, computing, sensors, and more. Sensor Selection Based on the system requirements we determined that we needed RGBD cameras in all four directions to help find required artifacts […]

Motor Controls & Computing – Hands On Ground Robot Design

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R3 motor controllers

This post is part of the Hands on Ground Robot Design series. See here for the full list of posts/topics https://robotsforroboticists.com/hands-on-ground-robot–drone-design-series for information on mechanical, electrical, motion control, computing, sensors, and more. Check out the post below for some pro tips on getting better support when talking with motor controller vendors. Motor Controls We used […]

Power System & Soft Start – Hands On Ground Robot Design

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robot schematic

This post is part of the Hands on Ground Robot Design series. See here for the full list of posts/topics https://robotsforroboticists.com/hands-on-ground-robot–drone-design-series for information on mechanical, electrical, motion control, computing, sensors, and more. Power System The power system of the robot is key for making everything move and for powering all of the sensors and computers. […]

Mechanical & Wheels – Hands On Ground Robot Design

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modular robot design

This post is part of the Hands on Ground Robot Design series. See here for the full list of posts/topics https://robotsforroboticists.com/hands-on-ground-robot–drone-design-series for information on mechanical, electrical, motion control, computing, sensors, and more. Robot Size Decision After we have the list of system requirements we start with the design of the mechanical structure of the robot. […]

Hands On Ground Robot & Drone Design Series

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subt robots

Hi all, This is a new series looking at the detailed design of various robots. To start with we will be looking at the design of two different robots that were used for the DARPA Subterranean Challenge. Both of these robots were designed for operating in complex subterranean environments, including Caves, Mines & Urban environments. […]

Book Review: The Design and Engineering of Curiosity

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Book Cover

As soon as I saw this book existed on Amazon, I instantly wanted to read it. It is not often that I see a book dedicated to the detailed engineering design of a complex robotic system. The Design and Engineering of Curiosity: How the Mars Rover Performs its Job by Emily Lakdawalla did not disappoint. […]

The easiest part was building the hardware?

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A colleague of mine who wishes to remain anonymous recently heard somebody say that hardware was the easy part of robotics. In response to that he wrote this email/poem. (I am calling it a poem, he did not). (I made a few small changes to protect anonymity) I fully understand why many people think that […]

Intel RealSense L515 Teardown

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The Intel Realsense L515 is a nice little LIDAR Depth Camera. Intel is planning on discontinuing this sensor in early 2022, however I have an old one that I want to tear apart. I am not adding much text to this, I am mostly just sharing the images. Please discuss any parts you can identify […]

Motion Coordinator Gateways: Make interfacing to motor controllers easier

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Servotronix Motion Coordinator

Often we need to communicate with motor controllers from different vendors. Writing software drivers for each one can be a pain and time consuming. Other times we need to use motor controllers utilizing EtherCAT or CANopen, but talking to those drives from our computers is difficult to implement. One solution is using a motion coordinator […]

Intel RealSense D435 Teardown and Cleaning

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realsense CAD

The Intel RealSense D435 is nice little depth camera. So naturally I want to tear it down and see what is inside of it. Also I have seen many cases where if the the camera is used outdoors dust can get inside on the lenses and affect image quality. I have also seen the internal […]

Intel RealSense 3D Camera for Robotics & SLAM (with code)

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Comparing depth and color RGB images

Note: I have been using these cameras for the past 2 years or so. They are great for research, but I do not recommend them for commercial applications due to USB reliability issues. The Intel RealSense cameras have been gaining in popularity for the past few years for use as a 3D camera and for […]

Using Hydraulics for Robots: Introduction

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Hydraulic System

Hydraulics are sometimes looked at as an alternative to electric motors. Some of the primary reasons for this include: Linear motion Very high torque applications Small package for a given torque Large number of motors that can share the reservoir/pump can increase volume efficiency You can add dampening for shock absorption However there are also […]

Wiring Oriental Motor Motors

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Oriental Motor

I really like the Oriental Motor motors and gear boxes. The motors work well and they have nice gearbox configurations. In particular I like these for driving wheels on medium size robots. While I really like the products, the company support is lacking. In particular they will not give out the wiring instructions or detailed […]

Underwater Photography and Videography

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image underwater with lights and no lights

I had somebody ask me questions this week about underwater photography and videography with robots (well, now it is a few weeks ago…). I am not an expert at underwater robotics, however as a SCUBA diver I have some experience that can be applicable towards robotics. Underwater Considerations There are some challenges that exist with […]

Lithium, Lithium-ion, LiPo & LiFePO4 Battery Safety and Fire Handling

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NASA JPL RoboSimian Fire

Lithium battery safety is an important issue as there are more and more reports of fires and explosions. Fires have been reported in everything from cell phones to airplanes to robots. If you don’t know why we need to discuss this, or even if you do know, watch this clip or click here. I am […]

Industrial Robot Safety Standards, Abbreviations, Codes & Titles

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List of industrial safety standards

I recently attended the National Robot Safety Conference for Industrial Robots and found myself confused with all of the safety standards. Here is the sheet that they provided to help identify Standards, Abbreviations, Codes & Titles. If you find any of these interesting and wish to purchase the standards you can go to the Robot […]

National Robot Safety Conference – October 2017

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national robot safety conference

I had the opportunity to attend the National Robot Safety Conference for Industrial Robots today in Pittsburgh, PA (USA). Today was the first day of a three-day conference. While I mostly cover technical content on this site; I felt that this was an important conference to attend since safety and safety standards are becoming more […]

CAN and CCP/XCP for Error Detection and Calibration

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CAN logger kvasser

Kvaser reached out to me about writing a sponsored post to put on this site. I have used many Kvaser CAN interfaces in the past. Since they work well and are reliable I agreed. I also dont know anything about CCP/XCP; so this should be interesting. This is my first time accepting a sponsored post […]

LIDAR vs RADAR: A Detailed Comparison

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Radar usage

Hi all I was recently asked about the differences between RADAR and LIDAR. I gave the generic answer about LIDAR having higher resolution and accuracy than RADAR. And RADAR having a longer range and performing better in dust and smokey conditions. When prompted for why RADAR is less accurate and lower resolution I was asked […]