Society of Robots - Robot Forum

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Hi.
I still like to build telerobotic robots and here are my latest versions.
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLi0zyNfBMXA8SMBR8jWbhCJ7RWjkjBnN_

If anyone have to many LEGO Mindstorms EV3 / NXT or arduino or raspberry pi laying around and want to have
robots in a room controlled from all over the world,
then I can explain how to set it up.

There are now, what I know, two telerobotic game projects.
One in Kiev/Ukraine but probably not active now.
https://www.isotopium.com/
and one in Finland
https://www.surrogate.tv/

If anyone know of any more please let me know.

Last week I got a solution to be able to control a robot with a phone on it to work on a 4G/5G phone and a 3G/4G/5G  network.
I can put my robots anywhere in the world and log in from the other side of earth and remote control it. 

Anyone want to drive around in Peru on a Inca site or any other place?
Let me know and I can send a robot there and we can log in and drive around there    


Regards from Sweden
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  Hello!   

     You may be able to find one on ebay - if not, there are companies now that have 3-d printers
that can make you a cover that you want.

    If those are not an option, then the process for making one in your home,
can be found on Instructables; - they have a whole bunch of innovative home projects!

good luck!!    

Hi all, first, I have two versions of my question: 1) what is wrong with the way I am trying to calculate the Jacobian and then its pseudo inverse? 2) Does anyone have a good reference for how to solve for the next angles of each joint based on the velocity of the end effector and Jacobian?

Now some background: I am working on a hexapod and trying to design the inverse kinematics and path following for the individual legs. Because this will involve a lot of repletion/trial and error, I am designing a simulator to help me test my pathing so I don?t accidentally break something. I?ve laid the groundwork for a lot of it; drawing the robot, homogenous transform calculation, even calculating the Jacobian.

What I?m running into is trouble solving for the inverse Jacobian. The first time it?s calculated seems fine and the arm moves a little bit toward its target. The second time it?s calculated, the values go to extremes causing the arm to basically invert itself. The third and subsequent times, it seems fine. (See attached gif for example.)

I?ve reviewed formulas, not seeing any issue there. I?ve reviewed outputs and haven?t found anything out of the ordinary besides the pseudo inverse. And the visuals appear to make sense after the inversion of the arm.

I?ve done a lot of research for examples of inverse Jacobian math but can only find symbolic solutions.

Is there something I?m missing? Code provided below, I?ll mention this is in Ocatave/Matlab.

clc;
clear;
clearvars;

function H = Hg(th,a,r,d) % Creates homogenous transform
  H = [cosd(th) -sind(th)*cosd(a) sind(th)*sind(a) r*cosd(th);
      sind(th) cosd(th)*cosd(a) -cosd(th)*sind(a) r*sind(th);
      0 sind(a) cosd(a) d;
      0 0 0 1];
end

function drawLeg(t, xp, yp, zp, Body, CoxaS, FemurS, TibiaS, EndEfS)
  CoxaV = [CoxaS(1), FemurS(1); CoxaS(2), FemurS(2); CoxaS(3), FemurS(3)];
  FemurV = [FemurS(1), TibiaS(1); FemurS(2), TibiaS(2); FemurS(3), TibiaS(3)];
  TibiaV = [TibiaS(1), EndEfS(1); TibiaS(2), EndEfS(2); TibiaS(3), EndEfS(3)];
 
 
  plot3(xp, yp, zp, 'b.') %draw path
  hold on
  plot3(CoxaV(1,:), CoxaV(2,:), CoxaV(3,:), 'm', 'LineWidth', 3) %draw coxa
  plot3(FemurV(1,:), FemurV(2,:), FemurV(3,:), 'g', 'LineWidth', 3) %draw femur
  plot3(TibiaV(1,:), TibiaV(2,:), TibiaV(3,:), 'r', 'LineWidth', 3) %draw tibia
  axis([Body(1)-5 Body(1)+5 Body(2)-5 Body(2)+7 Body(3)-5 Body(3)+5])
  axis equal
  %body centered graph to make sure it stays in view while walking
  grid on
  hold off
  pause(t)
end

function [Th1, Th2, Th3] = stepLeg (t, Th1, Th2, Th3, x, y, z)
  ### DESIGN ROBOT ###
  % 3DOF articulting arm
  % Start with only z offset for center of robot.
  x00 = 0;
  y00 = 0;
  z00 = .5;

  % Link lengths
  a0 = 2; %distance from body center to leg 1, UPDATE FROM CAD
  a1 = .5; %length of coxa in cm aka base (joint 0) to joint 1 in z direction
  a2 = 1; %length of femur
  a3 = 1; %length of tibia

  ## DH Parameters ##
  Th0 = 30; %UPDATE FROM CAD
  A0 = 0;
  A1 = 90;
  A2 = 0;
  A3 = 0;
  r0 = a0;
  r1 = 0;
  r2 = a2;
  r3 = a3;
  d0 = 0;
  d1 = a1;
  d2 = 0;
  d3 = 0;
 
  ## Build vectors for each segment ##
  % Each line has an extra element to help the matrix math
  Body = [x00; y00; z00; 1];
  Coxa = [0; a1; 0; 1];
  Femur = [a2; 0; 0; 1];
  Tibia = [a3; 0; 0; 1];

  ## Generate all homogenous transforms ##
  Hb0 = Hg(Th0, A0, r0, d0);
  H01 = Hg(Th1, A1, r1, d1);
  H12 = Hg(Th2, A2, r2, d2);
  H23 = Hg(Th3, A3, r3, d3);
  Hb1 = Hb0*H01;
  Hb2 = Hb0*H01*H12;
  Hb3 = Hb0*H01*H12*H23;

  ## Calculate starting locations for each segment ##
  CoxaS = Hb0*Body;
  FemurS = Hb0*H01*Coxa;
  TibiaS = Hb0*H01*H12*Femur;
  EndEfS = Hb0*H01*H12*H23*Tibia;

  ## Draw the leg ##
  drawLeg(t, x, y, z, Body, CoxaS, FemurS, TibiaS, EndEfS)
 
  ### Now to give a target for the leg ###
  ## Generate Jacobian ##
  # Rotation matrices #
  Rbb = [1, 0, 0; 0, 1, 0; 0, 0, 1];
  Rb0 = Hb0(1:3, 1:3); %use first three rows and first three columns
  Rb1 = Hb1(1:3, 1:3);
  Rb2 = Hb2(1:3, 1:3);

  # Displacement vectors #
  dbb = 0;
  db0 = Hb0(1:3, 4); %use first three rows of fourth column
  db1 = Hb1(1:3, 4);
  db2 = Hb2(1:3, 4);
  db3 = Hb3(1:3, 4);

  # Joint rotation velocity matrices #
  rbb = Rbb*[0;0;1];
  rb0 = Rb0*[0;0;1];
  rb1 = Rb1*[0;0;1];
  rb2 = Rb2*[0;0;1];

  # Create the culumns representing partial diffferentials for each joint #
  %zeroth = [cross(rbb, db3-dbb); rbb] % not needed since it's a fixed joint
  first = [cross(rb0, db3-db0); rb0];
  second = [cross(rb1, db3-db1); rb1];
  third = [cross(rb2, db3-db2); rb2];

  # Concatinate into the jacobian #
  fullJ = [first, second, third];
  % only need the cartesian portion
  J = fullJ(1:3, 1:3)
  Jinv = pinv(J) %Print for troubleshooting
 
  ## Calculate the velocity of the end effector ##
  EndEfS %Print for troubleshooting
  TargetX = x(1) %Print for troubleshooting
  TargetY = y(1) %Print for troubleshooting
  TargetZ = z(1) %Print for troubleshooting
  Err =[x(1); y(1); z(1); 0] - EndEfS %Print for troubleshooting
  fullV = ([x(1); y(1); z(1); 0] - EndEfS)*t;% Calculate velocity of EE
  V = fullV(1:3); % Removing the last element since it's trash info

  # Calc new joint angles #
  w = pinv(J)*V; % Calc joint velocities
  delTh = w.'/t % Calc change in joint angles
  Th0 = Th0; %this should never change?
  Th1 = Th1 + delTh(1);
  Th2 = Th2 + delTh(2);
  Th3 = Th3 + delTh(3);
end


### TIME STEP ###
t = .001

### BUILD PATH ###
% test to determine how piecewise funcitons would work to create path.
% This square looks really nice for now
for i = 1:96
  if i <= 24
    x(i) = i/6;
    y(i) = 3;
    z(i) = 1;
  elseif 24 < i  && i <= 48
    x(i) = x(i-1);
    z(i) = z(i-1)+1/6;
    y(i) = 3;
  elseif 48 < i && i <= 72
    x(i) = x(i-1) - 1/6;
    z(i) = z(i-1);
    y(i) = 3;
  elseif 72 < i && i <= 96
    x(i) = x(i-1);
    z(i) = z(i-1) - 1/6;
    y(i) = 3;
  end
end

### Set Up Initial Angles ###
% Starting angles
Th1 = 60; %UPDATE FROM CAD
Th2 = 0;
Th3 = 0;

### Time Loop ###
for i = 1:10
  [Th1, Th2, Th3] = stepLeg(t, Th1, Th2, Th3, x, y, z)
end


Hi, I am a 15-year old robot enthusiast from India. I am currently building a demi humanoid robot and I was in search of a microcontroller. I tried using Raspberry Pi but it was not enough for me. My next option was to use Nvidia Jetson Nano, but it was really expensive. It was around 335(approx.) in Amazon. For Indians like us, 300 dollars is highly expensive. Since I am a student and not having a job I am living under my parents and have no source of income. My parents cannot afford to buy this Jetson Nano. Recently, I found my old PC lying around. I was thinking if I could use that as the controller for my robot. If yes, could you please explain how can I do it?

    Hello!

     I would assume 2 or more joints, or degrees of freedom, would constitute
an articulated robot. Mousetraps are considered to be a type of "robot" to
some definitions, but I would not call it a robot.
    If the robot is a moving base or arm, but has no intelligence with the
function it is performing, then that would be a sad robot. 
    Google 's Alexa has no arms, but can do alot of work. In this sense, if you could make a
body for Alexa, to respond to physical commands coupled with the original
intelligence, you will have a interesting robot! 

    Anyway, good luck on whatever you are working on!! 

 see you same robot channel, same robot time!  excelsior!