beginner robot

[robonova1]

 i am new on the site society of robots. i am very thankful that there was this site and i have a question about robots. what is a good "beginner humanoid robot"? please do not suggest the lego mindstorms kit i already have and have built alpha rex. please don't ask me to rebuild it and post pictures because i have a robot built for a robot firefighting competetion and have my robot built and would not like to rebuild it.

[jwatte]

The best beginning humanoid robot I know if is the Bioloid by Robotis. It uses Dynamixel AX-12 servos. It also uses a Robotis microcontroller and software that can be programmed from your PC, but you can also program it yourself. There's also the Arbotix which is a replacement controller that works a lot like an Arduino board, yet can control the Bioloid.

Note that you really should get the "premium" version of the kit -- the starter kit only has a few servos and isn't very humanoid-like.

I don't have experience with the smaller AX-12 servos myself, but I've been impressed by the bigger MX line of servos, which is the step up from AX.

[robonova1]

thank you, do you have any suggestions how to save up? i have noticed it is way over $800 USD. but i do like how the premium looks and i have heard dynamixels are very strong.

[jwatte]

To save money: Make sure you have a job. Spend less than you make. Wait :-)
The trick really is to spend *way* less than you make. Even if you could afford your own apartment, live with room-mates in a shared flat, banking the difference. Even if you could afford to lease a new car, buy an old junker for cash and fix it yourself if it breaks. Etc.

[SushiKitten]

I was not expecting such a drool inducing robot. This is exactly what I was looking for. I wish the price tag didn't break the bank though. I need my money for tuition still.

And it's programmable in C... This thing was made for me.

[robonova1]

not to be a constant complainer but i'm not old enough to get a job. as i said i am entering in a robot firefight competition. i'm only in fifth grade and i have heard some people say that some servos would be dangerous for me because of how fast they are.

[robonova1]

also i was looking at robobuilder 5710k. is this good for robot soccer?

[idee17]

Working for family members is a good way to save up and asking parents to help pay robot parts will work if you can prove that you will learn a lot (which you will, if you stick with it). Also joining Science Olympiad when in 6th grade is also a good thing to do. There are events where robotics (general robotics) skills are mandatory or helpful. Also your school could pay for the of the parts (if the school offers Science Olympiad), which is always good 

[robonova1]

i decided im going to make a humanoid robot from scratch. it will be small,about 8 inches. does anyone know of some good servos and a nice microcontroller? my budget is coming in around 1100$. remember, small fast servos.

[jwatte]

In a humanoid, torque is a lot more important than speed. Very few joints need to move faster than 0.2 seconds for 60 degrees, which is not a "fast" servo, but all the leg joints will need a lot of torque to keep the body upright.

For $1100, I'd still recommend the Bioloid, or perhaps the Hovis (a similar robot from competitor Dongbu Robot.)

If you want to do a humanoid with hobby servos, try a Pololu Maestro as your controller, and the Hitec servo brackets from lynxmotion. It's probably still going to be taller than 8", though.

The 5710K looks like another option, although I have no experience with the wCK servos/actuators, so I couldn't say whether this is a good deal or not.

[robonova1]

i looked at the HOVIS lite and it comes in at 750 USD. i may choose this but i also looked at the robovie nano. it is a small robot by Vstone and is pretty cool looking and comes in at 815 USD.
Heres the link to robovie nano: http://www.roboteshop.com/robot-catalogue/vstone/robots/robovie-nano.html

[robonova1]

robovie nano is 500 usd here! :http://www.rt-shop.jp/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=1000_1015
i have found my robot!
thank you all for your help i am sorry about spelling errors i am very happy right now.

[calinezul]

On the market are available a lot of humanoid robots that can be used in educational of hobby purposes. I create a list for you: Kumotek KT-X, Manoi AT01, Darwin OP, or NAO. The price is high compared with NXT, but it worth if you have in plans to learn something about humanoid robots.

[robonova1]

 i am using my robot for competition and the nao, darwin op, and manoi at01 have shells that can be damaged by robot kung fu and such.

[Duane Degn]

The Dynamixel AX-12A servos are really cool. They let you do all sorts of cool stuff when them. The have torque feedback so you can tell how hard your robot is working. You can turn the torque off and then position the robot yourself and have your controller memorize the positions for later play back.

One nice thing about he Bioloid set jwatte mentioned is you don't have to buy the whole set at once. You can purchase just the plastic hardware pieces of the Bioloid without needing to purchase all the servos at the same time. This way you could slowly collect the servos and then once you have enough servos to build a humanoid you could then buy the humanoid set without the servos.

While I really like the AX-12A servos, I also really like being able to get a lot of servos for not much money. HobbyKing has some pretty good prices on servos. I used their cheap HXT900 servos in a hexapod which worked really well (I also used them in a poorly designed hexapod which didn't work well).

Their metal gear HXT-12 servos are pretty strong both in torque and structurally.

Here are some links to the servos:
http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbycity/store/__662__HXT900_9g_1_6kg_12sec_Micro_Servo.html
http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbycity/store/__2__HXT_10kg_Servo_metal_gear_55g_10kg_16sec.html

I used 16 of the small servos and 16 metal gear servos to show how a Propeller can drive 32 servos at once without additional ICs.

http://forums.parallax.com/showthread.php?137597-QuickStart-Driving-32-Servos-(Video)