Robotics Blog for the Professional Roboticist
In 2014 I launched Mayim, LLC (a spinoff from the USDA SCRI-MINDS project) to reduce wasted water being applied to crops when irrigating. Most farmers overwater their crops since to underwater means death to their crops. By accurately controlling irrigation we were able to not only reduce water usage, but also reduce pesticide usage, reduce fertilizer usage, reduce leeching of… The post Wireless…
Warren “Chuck” Whitaker has probably built more unique robots than any other human. In the past 40+ years he has designed and fielded robots for mining, subterranean rescue, space, agriculture, nuclear cleanup, self driving cars, pipe inspection, construction and more. He has also mentored 100’s if not 1000’s of future roboticisits. As he gets ready to transition to his next… The post Chuck: The…
The Electronic Connector Book by Davide Andrea is the book I wish I had when I first started out as a roboticist, and is the book I am happy to now have. I say this is a book, but it is a large tome of everything you ever wanted to know (and did not know you wanted to know) about… The post Book Review: The Electronic Connector Book appeared first on Robots For Roboticists .
Hi allA few years ago I did a teardown of the classic LMS 291 “brick” that was common on many early robots. Now I had the chance to open up a newer much smaller TiM-100 LIDAR sensor. Lets see how things have changed. See the video below to learn about the SICK TiM sensor. To look back at the old… The post SICK TiM LIDAR Teardown appeared first on Robots For Roboticists .
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 revisiting the schedule at least… The post Project Planning:…
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, and much more. In many… The post Automate 2023 appeared…
This post is part of the Hands on Robot Design series. See here for the full list of posts/topics http://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 the drone as…
This post is part of the Hands on Robot Design series. See here for the full list of posts/topics http://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…
Hi This morning I got the news that a friend, mentor and colleague for the past 17 years has passed away. I wanted to share a few lessons from Jim. Never be satisfied and always seek perfection, yet also know when a robot is ready to test. Think about your work. If you did something incorrectly, fix it. Become an… The post Jim Teza. How to be a better Roboticist. appeared first on Robots For…
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 code open source, so anyone… The post Quadruped Control Full Stack Development Kit appeared first…
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 to add to this list.… The post Robotics Dictionary appeared first on Robots For…
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 range of different controllers (AC,… The post Setup & Configuring a Copley Motor…