27 Sep 2009
arbotixdynamixelmech-warfarerobots
I've been working on assembling a Biped for mech warfare for a little while now. I finally attached an ArbotiX
to it, and started doing pose and capture:
There aren't a lot of places to get M2 hardware these days. Your local hardware store likely won't carry
it (most don't even carry #2-56 screws, 4-40 being the smallest they stock). Luckily, your hobby store
probably has them. The 1/18th scale car craze is great for us robot builders: a number of the models use
M2 hardware. The picture to the right shows Reaver's feet attached, using M2x4mm screws from a hobby
shop.
Speaking of Reaver's feet, they look familiar, eh? Much of the SES stuff that doesnt specifically hold
servos, is compatible with Bioloid if you're creative. The Bioloid brackets hall have 5/8" x 5/8"
patterns, which align with many of the SES add-ons. Reaver is using a pair of BRAT feet, and I'm sure
everyone has noticed that Issy has SES tube-style legs.
19 Sep 2009
arbotixrobots
While the hardware of the arbotiX has been stable and ready to go for months, we've still been working to
expand and refine the software suite. Tonight I'm uploading what will probably be the final beta release
(Beta3b) of the arbotiX/PyPose suite. This latest release features a now fully functional PyPose, with
pose and sequence manipulation, the ability to run sequences live in PyPose, and the ability to export
the poses and sequences to the AVR. The full download is available on our google code site:
http://arbotix.googlecode.com
I'd like to send out a big thanks to all of our beta testers. They've been hard at work testing the
heck out of the arbotiX libraries and PyPose. I spent some time the other day working with Seth and
Ben to refine the PyPose interface. One of the major changes we've made is to lock the servo position
liders when a pose is not selected for editing, this has made the interface much more intuitive to new
users.
This evening I spent a while working with Jodie to get her board working with an STK500. I've been
using an AVRISP in house for a while, but one of the things I've been doing is carrying over my
heavily modified boards.txt and programmers.txt files from release to release... Apparently,
somewhere along the way many things have changed in what the stock file now is, which caused
a great deal of confusion tonight. Needless to say, I'll be revisting my boards.txt and
programmers.txt files tomorrow, and updating our wiki with a better walk through of setting
up programmers.
Anyone who has tested PyPose will notice we have a menu called Tools, which really only has
the Pose Editor and the Sequence Editor. Looking towards the future, I'm working on two major
tools that will be in future releases of PyPose later this Fall. The first is
NUKE, the Nearly Universal Kinematics Engine.
NUKE will allow users to setup and export an Arduino project comprised of a complete IK engine,
custom tuned for the quad or hex, and a periodic gait engine. The second tool will be a command
line style interface within PyPose that will allow you to query and edit anything connected to
the Bioloid bus on your arbotiX.
A final note is that we're actually running ahead of schedule here at Vanadium, on both the
hardware production and software testing fronts, so you should see the arbotiX on shelves at
Trossen by the end of the month!
Where to Buy Stuff, Part Two: