Sailing Robots of the World

Congratulations to the "SB Met" Autonomous boat for the successful crossing of the Atlantic Ocean.  This is the first "unmanned" sailing robot to win the MicroTransat by crossing the Atlantic Ocean.

SB Met - Ocean Sensing AS Robotic Boat

Here is a nice article about the successful completion written by the San Francisco Chronicle:  Robot boat sails into history by finishing Atlantic crossing

The concept of autonomous boats sailing the Earths Oceans has been developing rapidly over the last few years.  A convergence of robotic technology, remote communications, and better batteries/solar have created an opportunity for new robots that can sail autonomously. These vessels are much more capable than drift buoys, having either sails, motors, or 'wave gliders' to provide propulsion. Adding the in the lowering cost of satellite communications, it is possible to create lower cost sensor platforms that can travel long distances on open water.

There are a few Robotics Challenges that have been created to spur innovation and attempts to make record setting crossings.  The Micro Transat has been running races for teams to compete annually by either Autonomous or "Unmanned" robots crossing the atlantic.  Only this past year have serious competitors been able to complete the journey. "Serious" meaning craft that are built to withstand the beating ocean waves, minimal sunlight, strong currents, and harsh salt water. This year Ocean Sensing AS entered it's "Sailbuoy", a sensor platform built to autonomously withstand the North sea and collect data for days before returning to port.

Robot Challenges:
MicroTransat - https://www.microtransat.org/
World Robotic Sailing Championships - http://www.roboticsailing.org/
The Sailbot competition - http://www.sailbot.org/

There are a few various projects and companies that have been started in the last few years.  Most interesting are the Individuals and groups of Makers that are building Autonomous robot boats.

SeaCharger by Damon McMillian

Damon McMillan had great success when his "SeaCharger" navigated from California to Hawaii, and then from Hawaii to (nearly) New Zealand.

Project Ladon

Project Ladon is also building an Autonomous Boat with intentions of being the first to sail Around the World

The ambitious BlueBird Project is building the SeaVax robot to scoop-up ocean polluting plastics.

There are a few companies that have been created to build Autonomous boats
Sail Drone, Alameda, California:  https://www.saildrone.com/
Ocean Sensing, Bergen, Norway:  http://www.sailbuoy.no/
Liquid Robotics: https://www.liquid-robotics.com/  - makers of the Wave Glider
Teledyne Marine: http://www.teledynemarine.com/slocum-glider - makers of Slocum Gliders

More local applications for environmental monitoring include project and companies like:
Robot-fish made for Project Shoal
Vertex AUV by Hydromea, an Autonomous Underwater Vehicle

There are many more, if you have a favorite system that I did not mention, please post it in the comments section.

It is a wonderful time we live in! It is time to create robots to explore our world and beyond!

Mojo (#13) - Knobby Knees

I am still investigating the best leg design for Mojo - The compliant quadruped walking robot.  It is clear from the videos that perhaps the legs are "too compliant". The springs are showing some compression, even as the robot stands. Also, in the configuration, the robot can not handle the weight of the battery without further compression. 

Mojo - The Compliant Quadruped Walking Robot - with sexy robot legs

I believe when the knee servo pulls the leg up, the robot is not gaining much more additional compression. In addition, when the leg is moving back in the gait, the leg also compresses.  So, it seems, I will need either stronger/tunable springs or perhaps a 'less compliant' compliant leg.

So, we iterate through a different design! The new design that will allow for the leg to be pulled back, with out compliance.  But, still have the ability to be compliant when the knee is flexed and absorb some ground shock.

Straight legs with "knee joint" - 3D printed

The new legs are straight, with a "knee cap", and the Serial Elastic Actuator (SEA) is located on the back. Unfortunately this design does not have much in aesthetic appeal. - They are ugly!!

Mojo - A Compliant Quadruped Walking Robot - now with "knobby knees"

Hmmnnn...  I am not sure if I like this tangent in the design. The knees perform better in the standing position. Walking is still very unstable. The new actuators do not have much clearance Unfortunately, this design experiment did not yield good results!  Such is prototyping.

Back to the Drawing Board!!

Fail Lizard Lives!

The "Fail Lizard" is alive, and crawling around so be careful. no worries, it is 'Totally' not evil!  It just looks that way.  :)

From the video you can see that I have been working on some different robot parts like GRIPPERS!  I thought it would be interesting to see if I could create something that could move, with only two servos.  That is how Fail Lizard came about.

Unfortunately, there was a mis-hap with the polarity of the power source. Learning point, if you have your servo power cross wired with the ground, you will start to smell the smoke. once I found my mistake, I was able to quickly rebuild the Fail Lizard and take it for a crawl. Despite being thrown together very very quickly, it was able to 'Autonomously' crawl/drag its self around.  At the same time, gnashing it's gnarly (totally not evil) grippers.

Fail Lizard casting a long shadow

Fail Lizard is certainly a robo-hack, it was created for the primary purpose of creating a crawling gait using only two servos, one to 'twist' the back and the other to 'twist' its legs. This seems to work fairly well, the video segment had no tuning of the gait at all. AND the secondary purpose was to put (totally not evil) grippers on something!

Build your own Fail Lizard:

- 3D printed parts, including reused Mojo Chassis

- 3 servos: Grippers, Legs, back-twist

- Arduino Pro Mini, breadboard, jumpers, clothespins(!)

- Intentionally heavy USB power bank, zip tied

- all the love that only an inventor can give to an otherwise ugly beast! :)

I also learned that despite the smell of burning servos, the servos only had minor damage and with a little solder I was able to put them back together.

Smok'n Servo just needs the power lead re-soldered

So, actually the Fail Lizard resulted in some good experience in servo debugging, USB connector wire (why does it seem that they are always upside down?!?), dynamics of a crawlers, and some sweet new grippers!

Finally, a few new upgrades.  I have been watching tutorials on ShotCut, and was able to produce a little more professional video. Thanks MechaLion for the support! And thanks to Gunnar Olsen for providing some cool music for the Fail Lizard to crawl to.  :)

AND we now have the domain totallynotevilrobotarmy.com  !!

DARPA - Subterranean Challenge

Earlier this year DARPA (Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency) announced the next Robotics Challenge. This challenge will be underground! They are looking for robots to be capable of exploring and mapping underground structures.  The challenge will have three subdomains: Man made tunnel systems, Urban Underground, and Natural Cave Networks.

 DARPA Subterranean Challenge

The previous Robot Challenges included the original grand challenge of self navigating robots and more recently general robots for human activities.  NASA also recently completed a Robotics Challenge, and will have a new one starting later this year.  NASA Space Robotics Challenge 2

Both DARPA and NASA will have a track that allows for Virtual competition.  The simulation platform of choice is Gazebo part of the Open Source Robotics Foundation managers of the Robot Operating System ROS.

It is natural to think of the use cases and value an underground mapping robot capability could provide.  The recent search and rescue of the 12 boys in Thailand come to mind. Also, many science fiction movies show the future tech of a cave mapping robot, such as seen in the movie Prometheus.

It will be interesting to see the innovation that is spurred from these competitions.  Perhaps they will could find value in a Totally Not Evil Robot Army!

Mojo (#12) - Servo Up!

Mojo is my compliant quadruped robot, that 'almost' walks. Currently it is just a staggering, stumbling, and falling over compliant quadruped! :)

Over the past few weeks, I have been contemplating enhancements and improvements to make the robot more stable and capable of sustained gait.

Servo up!

The biggest change I will make will be 'leveling up' the servos. I started my Mojo project with simple plastic 9g micro servos - SG90.  These servos actually work pretty well for small projects. The robot has 8 servos, and in the past three months, I have only replaced 2 of them. This included my initial burn in phase where my controller code was making the robot do extreme splits!

Replacing micro servo with a standard servo

I will be replacing the small plastic SG90 with MG995 servo. There are considerable differences in size. The larger servo will have a stall voltage at 4.8v of at 11kg-cm, and 15kg-cm at 6v. This is considerably better than the SG90 which is around 2kg-cm.  The price of the servos is about 2.5 times more expensive.

To replace such a core component, it will require changes to the Chassis.  I will start enhancing the design for the larger, stronger servos. The placement is good, but will require a larger space. I will attempt to canter the legs in this process to try to improve the stability in the process. The current build has a high center of gravity, making it easy to topple over. a wider spread of the feet should reduce this.

I will continue to drive the servos with a PCA 9685 PWM driver board.  If I can drive the servos with more than 5v power, then I will get a higher performance.  That will require a new power source, perhaps time to consider hobby power packs.