13 ms·

CARA – High precision robot dog using rope

1073 points by hakonjdjohnsen 1y ago

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8s9TjRz01fo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8s9TjRz01fo

joeevans1000 1y ago
I recently found these videos. Amazing guy, amazing skills, great humor.
hakonjdjohnsen 1y ago
See also the youtube video about the project: https://youtu.be/8s9TjRz01fo https://youtu.be/8s9TjRz01fo
- PaulDavisThe1st 1y ago
  The linked page has that video embedded.
  - hakonjdjohnsen 1y ago
    Yeah good point! When I came across this amazing project and wanted to share it to HN, I was debating whether to post the youtube link or the project page. I decided to post the project page and mention the youtube link in the description for those who prefer video, but somehow that description got posted as a comment instead (not sure how that happened?). Anyway as you said the video is embedded in the project page so it wasn't really necessary
btbuildem 1y ago
I've watched and re-watched Aaed's videos on the capstan drive, it's great stuff. High speed, high torque, compliance, effectively no backlash. It's fascinating to watch a legit engineering mind at work.
- DeepSeaTortoise 1y ago
  He's easily one of my favorite content creators. Ofc, there are much better engineers, domain experts or more entertaining people on youtube, but he strikes a very enjoyable balance. I wanted to start writing a list of other tech related, pop-sci and industrial-design Youtubers I kinda enjoy, but noticed just how many channels I'm subscribed to... If there's any interest, I'll drop it, just tell me. Meanwhile I have some filtering and sorting to do.
  - noman-land 1y ago
    I am interested. I love these builder channels.
  - patatman 1y ago
    I'm interested as well! I never can get enough of these builders and engineers.
    - DeepSeaTortoise 1y ago
      Hey, I'll reply later to noman-land's comment below, but progress is kinda slow. It takes more time than expected to categorize this many channels and I stopped yesterday after having sorted a bit over 500 and have barely reached the letter "H" (most not tech related ofc, so no worries about getting a monstrous list). I got a bit more time today, so maybe today evening (German time), elsewise I'll have to skip Friday, so likely Saturday afternoon.
- Lerc 1y ago
  I recently found his videos also. It's one of those things that gets my mind bubbling with ideas for things I want to make, never enough time to do them all though (and this breadboard beside me is asking for attention) It does make me wonder about the algorithm, Quite a lot of things I find on Youtube turn up on HN a week or two later. I'm not sure if this is an indicator of the effectiveness or failure of the algorithm. It is definitely succeeding in finding videos popular with some people and showing it to more who might share that interest. The question is, are the things I (and consequently many others of similar interests) see the best of all there is, or a subset of the excellent videos out there that happen to get noticed. I sometimes find channels that are years old with a goldmine of good information. That suggests that there is more good stuff out there than what I see. Were they just unlucky that I didn't see them before? Am I lucky to be seeing them now? It also might be that it is not luck but the algorithm has arbitrarily decided that the video has some special factor that requires promotion or that I have passed some arbitrary threshold of perceived character development that makes me supposedly now interested in such things.
  - godelski 1y ago
    > It does make me wonder about the algorithm IIRC he uses a pretty simple algorithm. I remember him discussing the gating mechanism and how he had it follow a cycloid. I think there's a lot of opportunities for others to optimize the algorithms and he is focused on the physical engineering side. I'd love to see him collaborating with someone who does more reinforcement leaning. I also think it's very impressive what he achieves with such simplified algorithms. If I'm misremembering or missed something please correct me. I'm out now but I'll try to find the video of him talking about gating when I'm back if someone hasn't already linked it. Also, I love how YouTube has all these "small" creators doing extremely impressive stuff. It's a real shame the algorithms make discovery challenging. The beauty of something like YouTube is not about just getting something to watch, it's by being able to get access to any content. Search is always a difficult problem to solve but I'm afraid it's currently over optimizing for views rather than intent. Which, to be fair, is much harder to measure. But I say over optimized because frequently I can search the title with 90% accuracy and fail to find the video. Something minor like missing an "s" or something effectively non meaningful. It's extremely frustrating...
- adolph 1y ago
  I haven't watched the one about the dog, but the one with the initial explication of capstan drives [0] was excellent. I've been dreaming about it for the last year, especially since about the same time another person started working with the da Vinci robot actuators which use cables to generate find motion. 0. High Precision Speed Reducer Using Rope: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MwIBTbumd1Q https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MwIBTbumd1Q 1. Building a DIY Surgical Robot https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_8rHKrwr-Q https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_8rHKrwr-Q
  - ACCount36 1y ago
    The "DIY Surgical Robot" vid is so good. And it's also posted over a year ago with no follow-up. Damn.
- Keyframe 1y ago
  "back in the day", we used capstans to drive film (movie) rolls around the scanning aparatus. Both high speed and precise without backlash. Great stuff. Somehow I always thought maybe lack of high torque is the issue more people aren't using them or wear and tear.. but, apparently not?
  - mlhpdx 1y ago
    Dynema makes a huge difference, a true game changer in many ways. I came across it rigging sailboats where is started out replacing ropes and now replaces steel cables as well. Spectra is another brand with different, equally amazing properties.
    - darksaints 1y ago
      Spectra and Dyneema are both UHMWPE. They're different brand names (from Honeywell and DSM respectively) but chemically and mechanically the same, possibly with some small and insignificant differences due to manufacturing processes.
      - mlhpdx 1y ago
        That’s an answer straight from an LLM methinks and not reflective of actual experience. Read up on real world tests for the practical differences. They are very similar but far from “the same”.
    - Keyframe 1y ago
      Interesting you've mentioned sailboats. I've encountered dyneema for the first time in spearfishing!
- dyauspitr 1y ago
  How is there no backlash? I can’t imagine a rope drive without backlash.
  - Animats 1y ago
    Improved materials. Kevlar and Dyneema.[1] Dyneema is about 15x stronger than steel per unit weight. Kevlar toothed belts have been available for many years, and can be used for many of the same applications as this capstan setup. Neither material has much elasticity. The advantage over gears is that overloads are distributed over much more material. You don't snap gear teeth. This is good for leg landing shocks. [1] https://www.impact-fibers.com/info/unveiling-the-strength-kevlar-vs-dyneema-in-i-102863681.html https://www.impact-fibers.com/info/unveiling-the-strength-ke...
    - kragen 1y ago
      The relevant feature of Dyneema is specifically that its Young's modulus is much higher than most other organic fibers, about half that of steel, which is probably what you mean by "neither material has much elasticity". Steel cables would work just as well if weight isn't a consideration, but I think Dyneema is likely to be more resistant to abrasion. However, heat produced by any significant dynamic friction will ruin it immediately, as I found to my sorrow. Kevlar is much more heat-resistant, and of course steel is more heat-resistant than Kevlar.
      - regularfry 1y ago
        Dyneema is much easier to work with, too. I'm quite fond of bowstring as a material for this sort of thing. It usually has other fibres mixed in with it so it's a little more bouncy than raw dyneema but that's minimised if you get thread that's intended for crossbows. It's usually waxed so there's some friction to it when you're manipulating it, and it's also easy to source.
      - darksaints 1y ago
        He actually used steel cables for his initial prototypes, but steel cables have a problem with rolling fatigue that actually gets worse the larger the diameter...so if a tiny steel cable is not strong enough, you might actually have to change the gear dimensions (and therefore ratios) in order to not fatigue them.
- monuszero 1y ago
  So, Aaed was our intern last summer - and he’s the real deal. I got to work with him on some really cool bespoke robotic end-effectors and the guy has great design instincts. Picked up mechatronics skills like a sponge, grokked hamming codes in like 30sec from a whiteboard doodle. Super hard worker too, he would stay late in the electronics lab to work on the motor design for what turned out to be CARA - we had fun testing the backlash one evening and ever since I’ve been trying to shoehorn one of those actuators into a project. Potential and active founders here should consider reaching out (i think a startup setting would suit him better than corporate research), though he’s obviously got his own stuff going on and a degree to finish!
- foobarian 1y ago
  These drives sound amazing, so why are they not used everywhere? What are the disadvantages?
oc1 1y ago
[flagged]
- A4ET8a8uTh0_v2 1y ago
  I don't think it is fair to downvote this comment. It is a genuine concern and should be addressed. Amusingly, given that the thought has entered mass consciousness by means of question on 'whether all this is a simulation', matrix ( the animated series ) explored this question a little and it is interesting in how the timeline aligns with what the movie presented.
  - asoneth 1y ago
    > It is a genuine concern and should be addressed. No disagreement, but does the comment meaningfully contribute to the discussion about this particular project?
    - A4ET8a8uTh0_v2 1y ago
      Fair point upon reflection.
  - falcor84 1y ago
    That's an interesting reference, but do our timelines really align with what was presented in (ani)matrix? Their timelines are quite murky, but it seems that in their universe things only started getting problematic between humans and AIs around 2090 and The First Machine War started in 2139 [0]. With how fast things are progressing, it's not clear to me that we have so much time. [0] https://screenrant.com/matrix-timeline-year-future-when-setting-explained https://screenrant.com/matrix-timeline-year-future-when-sett...
  - zuminator 1y ago
    It's absolutely a legitimate concern but since this robot project has no chance of replacing humanity, it seems like a derail in terms of the subject matter of the video. It's as if someone posted a link to an incremental advancement in graphene aluminum-ion battery tech and a person chimed in with a general lament about heavy metal battery toxic waste disposal.
A4ET8a8uTh0_v2 1y ago
There is a weird mixture of hope and dread in me as I watch this. I am ridiculously excited over a person like me being able to mess around with something that, until recently, was gated behind, well, a lot of hard problems to overcome ( I am only now slowly getting through old Peter Scott's robotics to get some perspective ). By comparison, it should be so much easier to explore aspects of robotics that may go beyond strict math and engineering.
- bmau5 1y ago
  Why dread?
  - kragen 1y ago
    Land mines have been killing people by surprise for decades. Flying drones, some of them dropping land mines and others lying in wait for incoming convoys, produced 70% of the casualties on both sides in the Ukrainian invasion last year, and a few weeks ago the Ukrainians shipped some drones to near a Russian airport several thousand kilometers from Ukraine to blow up a bunch of airplanes. This betokens a future of borderless warfare in which probably most of your family members will be killed over the next few decades, by one or another type of semi-autonomous or fully autonomous weapon. CARA is a super cool project which is never going to kill anybody, but it's another piece of evidence that the cost of the technology for such weapons has decreased enormously. That said, talking about the dread is going to get boring fast, because nearly every story on the HN front page is catapulting us toward that future.
    - A4ET8a8uTh0_v2 1y ago
      Good point. If we do press panic button each time, the word will lose its meaning. Naturally, it does not help that this particular community did happen to catapult us towards the future a fair bit over the past years.
    - scotty79 1y ago
      I'm more optimistic. I think filling battlefields with autonomous weapons will make humans obsolete there and reduce war causalities. Basically any attack on humans is going to be a war crime and terrorism akin to attacks on civilians russia is doing right now
fusionadvocate 1y ago
Why spend so much effort to achieve an "exact" gear ratio? Having more zeros does not equal to being more "precise". Also, I wonder how resistant this mechanism is to wear and fatigue.
- skeeter2020 1y ago
  >> Having more zeros does not equal to being more "precise" Isn't having more decimal places the exact definition of precision (vs accuracy)?
  - munchler 1y ago
    The point is that those decimal places don't have to be zeros. 7.893 is just as precise as 8.001.
    - a3w 1y ago
      Yet for some reason unknown to me, people get annoyed when you tell them „let us meet at 13:37. that is no more accurate than let us meet at 14:00 hours”
      - VMG 1y ago
        14:00 is a Schelling point
      - Mawr 1y ago
        1. It's easier to remember. 2. Do you actually say fourteen-zero-zero or just fourteen? If the latter, that's your answer right there.
    - deleted 1y ago
      [deleted]
- sabareesh 1y ago
  That was confusing part of this video . May be there are some limitation on the tools he uses to tune
AIorNot 1y ago
Amazing presentation! - somebody hire this kid asap https://www.aaedmusa.com/ https://www.aaedmusa.com/
- beachy 1y ago
  I'm going to tell my 12 year old that when he leaves education he wants something like this on his personal web site: "CARA (Capstans Are Really Awesome) is my latest quadrupedal robot, following ZEUS, ARES, and TOPS. Built over the course of a year, CARA is easily my most dynamic and well-designed quadruped yet."
- andrewstuart 1y ago
  He might be perfectly happy doing projects and YouTube.
  - dvt 1y ago
    Likely makes more money, too!
    - smohare 1y ago
      [dead]
    - geerlingguy 1y ago
      For many, no; taking on lots of sponsorships, you can make a good amount of money (especially the ones where you agree to do X posts across Y social media accounts for Z period of time, essentially being fully sponsored across a large swath of life). But for a lot of tech/engineering channels, it'd be immensely difficult to make the same salary as you could working at a FAANG or the like. (I'm making about half what I made when I had a W-2, but it's enough).
      - sitkack 1y ago
        You just need to start selling supplements, anti-aging creams and time shares.
TheBozzCL 1y ago
Thanks for sharing this! What a treat of a video. It's a fun project, and it's presented very well. This guy has a talent for communication - the video was super clear and well explained. I really admire that ability and I want to get better at it.
mikewarot 1y ago
It's amazing what he's done in terms of the robotics, and the presentation of it to the viewer. I'm amazed at the quality of cinematography on the internet these days. The implications of the tools we now make available for use in our own personal workshops are still being discovered, and will be for some time.
- ErigmolCt 1y ago
  Feels like the golden age of DIY engineering
  - sneak 1y ago
    I agree 1000%, which is why I find the whole “the internet sucks now” movement really disheartening. There are huge upsides to a network this large.
    - zelphirkalt 1y ago
      DIY and "the Internet" (the web?) have fairly little overlap, aside from learning resources existing. Those learning resources could just as well exist, and probably better or more, in a healthier web. I don't think contrasting the 2 things is making much sense.
- 3abiton 1y ago
  As someone who workedon projects, written documentation(even notes) let alone video format is even more time consuming than the work itself. It's extremely beneficial for long projects and continuation, but really tedious. Kudos to all the applied tech youtubers out there.
csours 1y ago
Professor of Upstairs Neighboring. https://youtu.be/8s9TjRz01fo?t=1128 https://youtu.be/8s9TjRz01fo?t=1128
micromacrofoot 1y ago
I'm so excited for a smaller open source version of this, I'd love to make one. What a great project.
andrewstuart 1y ago
He’s got the magic combination of tech skill plus ability to make and edit entertaining videos.
heap_perms 1y ago
Fascinating! I want to get into this type of stuff. But I have no idea where to start, I just have just a CS degree and 3 years experience as a developer.
- taneq 1y ago
  Arduinos and hobby servos. No, neither of them are "industrial grade" and yeah, you'll reach their limits pretty quickly, but building a physical thing that does stuff is (in my experience) a huge motivator. Or if you're already all over the basics, figure out what kind of stuff you want to build and then try and build it. :)
  - Paddywack 1y ago
    Can you recommend where to find beginners projects that “do stuff”.
    - Retr0id 1y ago
      Just like the article, there's a huge amount of hobbyist-accessible projects on youtube, you can click around the recommended videos.
    - sitkack 1y ago
      Grab a servo and start playing with it.
    - taneq 1y ago
      https://hackaday.com/ https://hackaday.com/ - cool projects and interesting stuff https://news.sparkfun.com/tags/tutorial https://news.sparkfun.com/tags/tutorial - tutorials on embedded software, electronics, etc. https://learn.adafruit.com/ https://learn.adafruit.com/ - electronics tutorials
    - Mars008 1y ago
      To begin with you can get a cheap robotic kit from Amazon, there are many of them, and put it together. That's probably the easiest and fastest way. From here you can read more about servos and controllers, modify its mechanics and software.
ZeWaka 1y ago
Just saw this at Open Sauce last weekend! Super cool project, looking at all the gearing was fascinating.
s_dev 1y ago
Cara is the Irish word for 'friend'. Not sure if thats what was intended or is just a coincidence.
- kragen 1y ago
  Also the Spanish words for "face" (no me gusta tu cara, boludo) and "expensive and female" (esa computadora es re cara, boludo). https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/cara https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/cara tells us it also has meanings in Aragonese, Asturian, Catalan, Crimean Tatar, French, Galician, Indonesian, Italian, Latvian, and another couple dozen languages.
- Keyframe 1y ago
  Male genital organ in few of the balkan languages (spelled with K), pronounced the same. So, there's that too.
- deleted 1y ago
  [deleted]
srameshc 1y ago
I remember a post previously related to him here on HN but I am surprised at how I forgot about him and how cool he is to build all these incredible stuff and also teaches in his videos. I am subscribing so that I never miss anything from him again.
aldousd666 1y ago
I watched this last week and my jaw was on the floor. He's both a great technician, and he has the personality to make it interesting. He walked through his testing strategy far enough that you could understand his methodology and the thought process behind it, but didn't belabor it by making us watch it all. Banger!
mikestaas 1y ago
> Programming takes the cake for what is both my most and least favourite part of any build. Nothing quite makes you pull out your hair and ask yourself, 'What the heck have I gotten into?' Like spending weeks programming a robot that just won't work. Eventually though, you fix that one line of code that makes all the difference. And then it's smooth sailing. Well, kind of. I feel this deeply, also this whole video is quality content.
yrcyrc 1y ago
This is absolutely amazing, awe inspiring.
mnurzia 1y ago
Wow! I actually met Aead last week while he was printing parts for this project (we both work at the same place). Surreal to see it at the top of HN.
sarthaksoni 1y ago
This personal site makes me genuinely jealous—in the best way.Really awesome side projects and great intro. Time to raise my own bar.
fitsumbelay 1y ago
this guy's work is pretty amazing I whole heartedly believe that I'll own a gang of (armed) quadrapets for home/property/personal protection within the next 10 years. I'm equally worried that once these become commodities they might be worse than an electric scooters have become to us bipeds on sidewalks but on balance I can't wait
- Mawr 1y ago
  > a gang of (armed) quadrapets for home/property/personal protection You're assuming you'll be the only one with those capabilities aren't you?
roschdal 1y ago
I don't like these robot dogs.
cryptoegorophy 1y ago
How do we make such robots intelligent? Like you only tell it to learn to jump the rope and then it goes through trial and error(s) to figure out a way to do it, and if it can’t and needs a physical upgrade then it tells you that? (Like a certain gear ratio etc)
- scotty79 1y ago
  https://developer.nvidia.com/blog/introducing-isaac-gym-rl-for-robotics/ https://developer.nvidia.com/blog/introducing-isaac-gym-rl-f...
scotty79 1y ago
It might be fun to optimize the shape of the rolling contact surface of the capstan drive away from cycloid to make it even better suited for specific application, like a robot dog leg that smoothly runs for miles.
jankovicsandras 1y ago
Very cool robot dog and interesting video! Can the dog climb stairs? Isn't capstan drive temperature sensitive, e.g. the ropes will be shorter in cold and longer in warm wheather?
pillars 1y ago
Some resources related capstan drive: https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1340266 https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1340266 https://fab.cba.mit.edu/classes/865.21/topics/mechanical_design//transmissions/ https://fab.cba.mit.edu/classes/865.21/topics/mechanical_des...
ErigmolCt 1y ago
This is an absolute masterclass in DIY robotics. With a proper battery and a tougher foot material, this thing could really stomp.
- amelius 1y ago
  Speaking about battery, how much current does it draw while at rest?
evrennetwork 1y ago
[flagged]
froh42 1y ago
What a horrible video is this, with the robotic translated AI voiceover? Update: Ah, weird, if I watch the non-embedded one on youtube it is the original in English with normal sound. It's the one embedded on his web site which has AI translation to German.
- indigo945 1y ago
  That's not the video's fault, but YouTube's. YouTube has started adding automatic AI voiceover translations to all videos, unless the uploader explicitly disables them for each single video. It's opt-out and the option is well-hidden, so most uploaders will not disable it. As an end user, there's nothing you can do to prevent from seeing them. But you can change the audio track to the original while the video is playing.
  - jedimastert 1y ago
    > YouTube has started adding automatic AI voiceover translations to all videos, unless the uploader explicitly disables them for each single video. WHAT?!? It a time when there is a growing animus towards AI generated content, for many content creators this would be tantamount to slander
- laughing_snyder 1y ago
  https://github.com/YouG-o/YouTube_No_Translation https://github.com/YouG-o/YouTube_No_Translation
amelius 1y ago
It's just a gut feeling but I'd trust a feedback based backlash elimination mechanism more than rope based, especially in the long run and/or with a large deployed base.
- heeton 1y ago
  But, why?
  - amelius 1y ago
    Like I said gut feeling. I suppose over time there may be some play in the axles, for example. Something feedback could compensate for but a rope could not. Anyway good engineering requires extensive testing over many hours of movements.
    - jedimastert 1y ago
      > Anyway good engineering requires extensive testing over many hours of movements. He actually discussed this in an earlier video for his initial tests on the capstan drive. He ended up testing the rope he used for around 358 hours (two weeks) on continuous use in the drive itself with very low backlash https://www.aaedmusa.com/projects/capstandrive https://www.aaedmusa.com/projects/capstandrive https://youtube.com/watch?v=MwIBTbumd1Q&t=10m https://youtube.com/watch?v=MwIBTbumd1Q&t=10m
nickdothutton 1y ago
Similar mechanism might be good for astronomical telescope mounts. Gears are often a problem and nobody seems to have solved it.
throwaway2037 1y ago
Another cool project from this person's blog: "Wrist Mounted CD Launcher" -> https://www.aaedmusa.com/projects/wrist-mounted-cd-launcher https://www.aaedmusa.com/projects/wrist-mounted-cd-launcher It definitely gives off Elysium (film) vibes.
hypertexthero 1y ago
Amazing work, beautifully presented. Geordi LaForge reminds me of Aaed.
einrealist 1y ago
What is the power consumption of these robots? I often wonder how limited and viable autonomous robots really are. When I look at Tesla's Optimus or Boston Dynamics' spectacular robots, how quickly do they need to be recharged?
- hinkley 1y ago
  My understanding is that those motors he uses are pretty special. And I would expect “efficient” to be part of that special. You’re optimizing for torque and accuracy per unit of mass and energy in this sort of space. I know he talked about them in earlier videos but I no longer recall the details.
  - einrealist 1y ago
    Aside from the onboard computing required to power the AI model controlling the robot, which also consumes energy, it is important to be as efficient as possible. However, if an Optimus is intended to replace human labour, such as lifting objects and wander around with it, the energy efficiency of the platform becomes negligible. The platform in the video and the robot dogs from Boston Dynamics are ideal for tasks where they are only limited by their own weight and the amount of computing power required to navigate, such as exploration. I suppose that's why we mostly see autonomous delivery robots on wheels. Or maybe I am being too pessimistic about other platforms...
- ovi256 1y ago
  > Cheetah robot can run 10.3 km with a 3 kg (465 Whrs) LiPo Battery > the 33kg robot runs at 22 km/h (6 m/s). The total power consumption from the battery pack was 973 watts and resulted in a total cost of transport of 0.5, which rivals running animals’ at the same scale. The 76% of total energy consumption is attributed to heat loss from the motor, and the 24% is used in mechanical work Cheetah was the robot built by Ben Katz, which then went on to electrify Boston Dynamics' dog. Given we've had no major energy density or motor efficiency breakthroughs since 2015, I bet the above still holds. That's a 30 min run at full throttle BTW. So to escape the current killer bots, try to run above a 2h marathon pace for 30 minutes. Source: https://dspace.mit.edu/bitstream/handle/1721.1/108096/Efficiency-Principles-for-Quadrupeds_v3.pdf?sequence=1 https://dspace.mit.edu/bitstream/handle/1721.1/108096/Effici...
kokorikooo 1y ago
The problem with gear is that they suffer from latency.
otikik 1y ago
Nice to see a cuadruped robot that doesn't sound like a swarm of angry bees.
tgtweak 1y ago
I think he'll have success with youtube/vlogging more than getting into the corporate world honestly - especially with some healthy sponsorships and great projects like this.
FugeDaws 1y ago
incredibly impressed everytime i watch one of his videos
syarb 1y ago
This project is so cool! Congrats Aaed. Breaking Taps on YouTube did a really awesome video on a somewhat similar mechanism (I'm no mechanical engineer haha, it was new to me!), rolling contact joints. I love the idea of using string/ropes. Worth checking out as well if this kind of stuff interests you! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQiLLcumqDw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQiLLcumqDw
unicorn_chaser 1y ago
New here and just stumbled upon this. Seen these "robodogs" live in Vegas mining conference. The usage is picking up, their functionality and range of movement is so much more advanced now, and the list of actions they can complete much more complex. Awesome stuff!
ezekiel68 1y ago
I had never seen a rope use a robot dog before so I clicked immediately. It wasn't what I expected from the headline, but very cool nonetheless.
taneq 1y ago
Oh man, that first capstan drive video was awesome and I kept wondering what he was going to do with it. A lot, apparently! This is so cool. Edit: And yes of course, in hindsight, you don't build a leg unless you're planning to build a thing with legs.
zackmorris 1y ago
This is great! The video is the epitome of applying solid engineering principles. Where most stop at a minimal viable working example, it sails past that and gets real work done solving foundational problems, using a waterfall approach that expands leverage at each level of abstraction. Complete with outside-the-box thinking and insights which help save the viewer from repeating unnecessary steps, so that the end goal is reachable using modest tools and readily available materials. I would gladly work with Aaed, and I must admit that I am jealous that he and his friends are living out the dreams that my friends and I had in the 1990s. - The Boomers didn't quite understand what we were trying to accomplish, as they had already done the important work of manifesting the equality that had previously been a dream in the US, so these sorts of innovations were gravy. But Gen X was raised on Star Wars, so will not be withholding mental energy from future generations. Unfortunately we are also victims of trickle-down economics, so have little to pass forward except for wisdom gleaned from the school of hard knocks. We had everything we needed to build these exact types of projects except for the time and resources that were hoarded by our elders. So the vast majority of us worked our lives away, barely making rent by prospecting the internet as miners for people with money, without ever striking gold in the vast majority of cases. Then watched as the fruits of our labors were used to build McMansions, expand monopolistic enterprises like private equity firms, or be simply wasted on frivilous expenses instead of reinvested in automations to create residual incomes. This led to us developing mental health issues like addiction due to the misalignment between the lives we had to live vs what might have been. Then we lost our heroes, like when Y Combinator went from an indie startup funder to a vetting VC like all the rest. And when Elon Musk pulled up the ladder behind him after accomplishing so much, then used his wealth to dismantle the social safety nets which make indie work possible. I don't believe that these statements are political, as they objectively describe the unwritten history of how some became so wealthy while most struggled, and the irony that I write this as I stand on the shoulders of those fallen is not lost on me. Now we have everything we need to build R2D2 and C3P0 right now, today. So I'm hopeful that the next step will be to create a meta economy within the status quo that distributes resources outside of the artificial scarcity created by the previous dominant systems of capitalism, socialism and communism. I believe that a gift economy loosely resembling solarpunk has the potential to liberate humanity from forced labor so that every individual has the opportunity to self-actualize in a reasonable time frame and still experience the joys of leisure time and youth. In practice, this will expand wealth redistribution models like Patreon and the WiX Toolset maintenance fee under an umbrella similar to the Humble Bundle, to level out long-tail effects and socialize gains while privatizing losses. Note that this works exactly the opposite of how most major economies work in the world, with the exception of nations like Norway which uses its sovereign wealth fund from nationalizing its oil companies to pay its citizens a pension that may someday become UBI. I realize that these points are mostly excuses and platitudes. But they are in no way meant to diminish the efforts of hackers - on the contrary, they are intended to bolster them by adding meaning to the work and convey why it's so important to those that came before. So I write this out today to record in the annals of history that the nature of the problems we face is no longer technical, but spritual.

1073 points by hakonjdjohnsen 1y ago

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8s9TjRz01fo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8s9TjRz01fo

joeevans1000 1y ago

I recently found these videos. Amazing guy, amazing skills, great humor.

hakonjdjohnsen 1y ago

See also the youtube video about the project: https://youtu.be/8s9TjRz01fo https://youtu.be/8s9TjRz01fo

PaulDavisThe1st 1y ago
The linked page has that video embedded.
- hakonjdjohnsen 1y ago
  Yeah good point! When I came across this amazing project and wanted to share it to HN, I was debating whether to post the youtube link or the project page. I decided to post the project page and mention the youtube link in the description for those who prefer video, but somehow that description got posted as a comment instead (not sure how that happened?). Anyway as you said the video is embedded in the project page so it wasn't really necessary

btbuildem 1y ago

I've watched and re-watched Aaed's videos on the capstan drive, it's great stuff. High speed, high torque, compliance, effectively no backlash. It's fascinating to watch a legit engineering mind at work.

DeepSeaTortoise 1y ago
He's easily one of my favorite content creators. Ofc, there are much better engineers, domain experts or more entertaining people on youtube, but he strikes a very enjoyable balance. I wanted to start writing a list of other tech related, pop-sci and industrial-design Youtubers I kinda enjoy, but noticed just how many channels I'm subscribed to... If there's any interest, I'll drop it, just tell me. Meanwhile I have some filtering and sorting to do.
- noman-land 1y ago
  I am interested. I love these builder channels.
- patatman 1y ago
  I'm interested as well! I never can get enough of these builders and engineers.
  - DeepSeaTortoise 1y ago
    Hey, I'll reply later to noman-land's comment below, but progress is kinda slow. It takes more time than expected to categorize this many channels and I stopped yesterday after having sorted a bit over 500 and have barely reached the letter "H" (most not tech related ofc, so no worries about getting a monstrous list). I got a bit more time today, so maybe today evening (German time), elsewise I'll have to skip Friday, so likely Saturday afternoon.
Lerc 1y ago
I recently found his videos also. It's one of those things that gets my mind bubbling with ideas for things I want to make, never enough time to do them all though (and this breadboard beside me is asking for attention) It does make me wonder about the algorithm, Quite a lot of things I find on Youtube turn up on HN a week or two later. I'm not sure if this is an indicator of the effectiveness or failure of the algorithm. It is definitely succeeding in finding videos popular with some people and showing it to more who might share that interest. The question is, are the things I (and consequently many others of similar interests) see the best of all there is, or a subset of the excellent videos out there that happen to get noticed. I sometimes find channels that are years old with a goldmine of good information. That suggests that there is more good stuff out there than what I see. Were they just unlucky that I didn't see them before? Am I lucky to be seeing them now? It also might be that it is not luck but the algorithm has arbitrarily decided that the video has some special factor that requires promotion or that I have passed some arbitrary threshold of perceived character development that makes me supposedly now interested in such things.
- godelski 1y ago
  > It does make me wonder about the algorithm IIRC he uses a pretty simple algorithm. I remember him discussing the gating mechanism and how he had it follow a cycloid. I think there's a lot of opportunities for others to optimize the algorithms and he is focused on the physical engineering side. I'd love to see him collaborating with someone who does more reinforcement leaning. I also think it's very impressive what he achieves with such simplified algorithms. If I'm misremembering or missed something please correct me. I'm out now but I'll try to find the video of him talking about gating when I'm back if someone hasn't already linked it. Also, I love how YouTube has all these "small" creators doing extremely impressive stuff. It's a real shame the algorithms make discovery challenging. The beauty of something like YouTube is not about just getting something to watch, it's by being able to get access to any content. Search is always a difficult problem to solve but I'm afraid it's currently over optimizing for views rather than intent. Which, to be fair, is much harder to measure. But I say over optimized because frequently I can search the title with 90% accuracy and fail to find the video. Something minor like missing an "s" or something effectively non meaningful. It's extremely frustrating...
adolph 1y ago
I haven't watched the one about the dog, but the one with the initial explication of capstan drives [0] was excellent. I've been dreaming about it for the last year, especially since about the same time another person started working with the da Vinci robot actuators which use cables to generate find motion. 0. High Precision Speed Reducer Using Rope: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MwIBTbumd1Q https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MwIBTbumd1Q 1. Building a DIY Surgical Robot https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_8rHKrwr-Q https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_8rHKrwr-Q
- ACCount36 1y ago
  The "DIY Surgical Robot" vid is so good. And it's also posted over a year ago with no follow-up. Damn.
Keyframe 1y ago
"back in the day", we used capstans to drive film (movie) rolls around the scanning aparatus. Both high speed and precise without backlash. Great stuff. Somehow I always thought maybe lack of high torque is the issue more people aren't using them or wear and tear.. but, apparently not?
- mlhpdx 1y ago
  Dynema makes a huge difference, a true game changer in many ways. I came across it rigging sailboats where is started out replacing ropes and now replaces steel cables as well. Spectra is another brand with different, equally amazing properties.
  - darksaints 1y ago
    Spectra and Dyneema are both UHMWPE. They're different brand names (from Honeywell and DSM respectively) but chemically and mechanically the same, possibly with some small and insignificant differences due to manufacturing processes.
    - mlhpdx 1y ago
      That’s an answer straight from an LLM methinks and not reflective of actual experience. Read up on real world tests for the practical differences. They are very similar but far from “the same”.
  - Keyframe 1y ago
    Interesting you've mentioned sailboats. I've encountered dyneema for the first time in spearfishing!
dyauspitr 1y ago
How is there no backlash? I can’t imagine a rope drive without backlash.
- Animats 1y ago
  Improved materials. Kevlar and Dyneema.[1] Dyneema is about 15x stronger than steel per unit weight. Kevlar toothed belts have been available for many years, and can be used for many of the same applications as this capstan setup. Neither material has much elasticity. The advantage over gears is that overloads are distributed over much more material. You don't snap gear teeth. This is good for leg landing shocks. [1] https://www.impact-fibers.com/info/unveiling-the-strength-kevlar-vs-dyneema-in-i-102863681.html https://www.impact-fibers.com/info/unveiling-the-strength-ke...
  - kragen 1y ago
    The relevant feature of Dyneema is specifically that its Young's modulus is much higher than most other organic fibers, about half that of steel, which is probably what you mean by "neither material has much elasticity". Steel cables would work just as well if weight isn't a consideration, but I think Dyneema is likely to be more resistant to abrasion. However, heat produced by any significant dynamic friction will ruin it immediately, as I found to my sorrow. Kevlar is much more heat-resistant, and of course steel is more heat-resistant than Kevlar.
    - regularfry 1y ago
      Dyneema is much easier to work with, too. I'm quite fond of bowstring as a material for this sort of thing. It usually has other fibres mixed in with it so it's a little more bouncy than raw dyneema but that's minimised if you get thread that's intended for crossbows. It's usually waxed so there's some friction to it when you're manipulating it, and it's also easy to source.
    - darksaints 1y ago
      He actually used steel cables for his initial prototypes, but steel cables have a problem with rolling fatigue that actually gets worse the larger the diameter...so if a tiny steel cable is not strong enough, you might actually have to change the gear dimensions (and therefore ratios) in order to not fatigue them.
monuszero 1y ago
So, Aaed was our intern last summer - and he’s the real deal. I got to work with him on some really cool bespoke robotic end-effectors and the guy has great design instincts. Picked up mechatronics skills like a sponge, grokked hamming codes in like 30sec from a whiteboard doodle. Super hard worker too, he would stay late in the electronics lab to work on the motor design for what turned out to be CARA - we had fun testing the backlash one evening and ever since I’ve been trying to shoehorn one of those actuators into a project. Potential and active founders here should consider reaching out (i think a startup setting would suit him better than corporate research), though he’s obviously got his own stuff going on and a degree to finish!
foobarian 1y ago
These drives sound amazing, so why are they not used everywhere? What are the disadvantages?

oc1 1y ago

[flagged]

A4ET8a8uTh0_v2 1y ago
I don't think it is fair to downvote this comment. It is a genuine concern and should be addressed. Amusingly, given that the thought has entered mass consciousness by means of question on 'whether all this is a simulation', matrix ( the animated series ) explored this question a little and it is interesting in how the timeline aligns with what the movie presented.
- asoneth 1y ago
  > It is a genuine concern and should be addressed. No disagreement, but does the comment meaningfully contribute to the discussion about this particular project?
  - A4ET8a8uTh0_v2 1y ago
    Fair point upon reflection.
- falcor84 1y ago
  That's an interesting reference, but do our timelines really align with what was presented in (ani)matrix? Their timelines are quite murky, but it seems that in their universe things only started getting problematic between humans and AIs around 2090 and The First Machine War started in 2139 [0]. With how fast things are progressing, it's not clear to me that we have so much time. [0] https://screenrant.com/matrix-timeline-year-future-when-setting-explained https://screenrant.com/matrix-timeline-year-future-when-sett...
- zuminator 1y ago
  It's absolutely a legitimate concern but since this robot project has no chance of replacing humanity, it seems like a derail in terms of the subject matter of the video. It's as if someone posted a link to an incremental advancement in graphene aluminum-ion battery tech and a person chimed in with a general lament about heavy metal battery toxic waste disposal.

A4ET8a8uTh0_v2 1y ago

There is a weird mixture of hope and dread in me as I watch this. I am ridiculously excited over a person like me being able to mess around with something that, until recently, was gated behind, well, a lot of hard problems to overcome ( I am only now slowly getting through old Peter Scott's robotics to get some perspective ). By comparison, it should be so much easier to explore aspects of robotics that may go beyond strict math and engineering.

bmau5 1y ago
Why dread?
- kragen 1y ago
  Land mines have been killing people by surprise for decades. Flying drones, some of them dropping land mines and others lying in wait for incoming convoys, produced 70% of the casualties on both sides in the Ukrainian invasion last year, and a few weeks ago the Ukrainians shipped some drones to near a Russian airport several thousand kilometers from Ukraine to blow up a bunch of airplanes. This betokens a future of borderless warfare in which probably most of your family members will be killed over the next few decades, by one or another type of semi-autonomous or fully autonomous weapon. CARA is a super cool project which is never going to kill anybody, but it's another piece of evidence that the cost of the technology for such weapons has decreased enormously. That said, talking about the dread is going to get boring fast, because nearly every story on the HN front page is catapulting us toward that future.
  - A4ET8a8uTh0_v2 1y ago
    Good point. If we do press panic button each time, the word will lose its meaning. Naturally, it does not help that this particular community did happen to catapult us towards the future a fair bit over the past years.
  - scotty79 1y ago
    I'm more optimistic. I think filling battlefields with autonomous weapons will make humans obsolete there and reduce war causalities. Basically any attack on humans is going to be a war crime and terrorism akin to attacks on civilians russia is doing right now

fusionadvocate 1y ago

Why spend so much effort to achieve an "exact" gear ratio? Having more zeros does not equal to being more "precise". Also, I wonder how resistant this mechanism is to wear and fatigue.

skeeter2020 1y ago
>> Having more zeros does not equal to being more "precise" Isn't having more decimal places the exact definition of precision (vs accuracy)?
- munchler 1y ago
  The point is that those decimal places don't have to be zeros. 7.893 is just as precise as 8.001.
  - a3w 1y ago
    Yet for some reason unknown to me, people get annoyed when you tell them „let us meet at 13:37. that is no more accurate than let us meet at 14:00 hours”
    - VMG 1y ago
      14:00 is a Schelling point
    - Mawr 1y ago
      1. It's easier to remember. 2. Do you actually say fourteen-zero-zero or just fourteen? If the latter, that's your answer right there.
  - deleted 1y ago
    [deleted]
sabareesh 1y ago
That was confusing part of this video . May be there are some limitation on the tools he uses to tune

AIorNot 1y ago

Amazing presentation! - somebody hire this kid asap https://www.aaedmusa.com/ https://www.aaedmusa.com/

beachy 1y ago
I'm going to tell my 12 year old that when he leaves education he wants something like this on his personal web site: "CARA (Capstans Are Really Awesome) is my latest quadrupedal robot, following ZEUS, ARES, and TOPS. Built over the course of a year, CARA is easily my most dynamic and well-designed quadruped yet."
andrewstuart 1y ago
He might be perfectly happy doing projects and YouTube.
- dvt 1y ago
  Likely makes more money, too!
  - smohare 1y ago
    [dead]
  - geerlingguy 1y ago
    For many, no; taking on lots of sponsorships, you can make a good amount of money (especially the ones where you agree to do X posts across Y social media accounts for Z period of time, essentially being fully sponsored across a large swath of life). But for a lot of tech/engineering channels, it'd be immensely difficult to make the same salary as you could working at a FAANG or the like. (I'm making about half what I made when I had a W-2, but it's enough).
    - sitkack 1y ago
      You just need to start selling supplements, anti-aging creams and time shares.

TheBozzCL 1y ago

Thanks for sharing this! What a treat of a video. It's a fun project, and it's presented very well. This guy has a talent for communication - the video was super clear and well explained. I really admire that ability and I want to get better at it.

mikewarot 1y ago

It's amazing what he's done in terms of the robotics, and the presentation of it to the viewer. I'm amazed at the quality of cinematography on the internet these days. The implications of the tools we now make available for use in our own personal workshops are still being discovered, and will be for some time.

ErigmolCt 1y ago
Feels like the golden age of DIY engineering
- sneak 1y ago
  I agree 1000%, which is why I find the whole “the internet sucks now” movement really disheartening. There are huge upsides to a network this large.
  - zelphirkalt 1y ago
    DIY and "the Internet" (the web?) have fairly little overlap, aside from learning resources existing. Those learning resources could just as well exist, and probably better or more, in a healthier web. I don't think contrasting the 2 things is making much sense.
3abiton 1y ago
As someone who workedon projects, written documentation(even notes) let alone video format is even more time consuming than the work itself. It's extremely beneficial for long projects and continuation, but really tedious. Kudos to all the applied tech youtubers out there.

csours 1y ago

Professor of Upstairs Neighboring. https://youtu.be/8s9TjRz01fo?t=1128 https://youtu.be/8s9TjRz01fo?t=1128

micromacrofoot 1y ago

I'm so excited for a smaller open source version of this, I'd love to make one. What a great project.

andrewstuart 1y ago

He’s got the magic combination of tech skill plus ability to make and edit entertaining videos.

heap_perms 1y ago

Fascinating! I want to get into this type of stuff. But I have no idea where to start, I just have just a CS degree and 3 years experience as a developer.

taneq 1y ago
Arduinos and hobby servos. No, neither of them are "industrial grade" and yeah, you'll reach their limits pretty quickly, but building a physical thing that does stuff is (in my experience) a huge motivator. Or if you're already all over the basics, figure out what kind of stuff you want to build and then try and build it. :)
- Paddywack 1y ago
  Can you recommend where to find beginners projects that “do stuff”.
  - Retr0id 1y ago
    Just like the article, there's a huge amount of hobbyist-accessible projects on youtube, you can click around the recommended videos.
  - sitkack 1y ago
    Grab a servo and start playing with it.
  - taneq 1y ago
    https://hackaday.com/ https://hackaday.com/ - cool projects and interesting stuff https://news.sparkfun.com/tags/tutorial https://news.sparkfun.com/tags/tutorial - tutorials on embedded software, electronics, etc. https://learn.adafruit.com/ https://learn.adafruit.com/ - electronics tutorials
  - Mars008 1y ago
    To begin with you can get a cheap robotic kit from Amazon, there are many of them, and put it together. That's probably the easiest and fastest way. From here you can read more about servos and controllers, modify its mechanics and software.

ZeWaka 1y ago

Just saw this at Open Sauce last weekend! Super cool project, looking at all the gearing was fascinating.

s_dev 1y ago

Cara is the Irish word for 'friend'. Not sure if thats what was intended or is just a coincidence.

kragen 1y ago
Also the Spanish words for "face" (no me gusta tu cara, boludo) and "expensive and female" (esa computadora es re cara, boludo). https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/cara https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/cara tells us it also has meanings in Aragonese, Asturian, Catalan, Crimean Tatar, French, Galician, Indonesian, Italian, Latvian, and another couple dozen languages.
Keyframe 1y ago
Male genital organ in few of the balkan languages (spelled with K), pronounced the same. So, there's that too.
deleted 1y ago
[deleted]

srameshc 1y ago

I remember a post previously related to him here on HN but I am surprised at how I forgot about him and how cool he is to build all these incredible stuff and also teaches in his videos. I am subscribing so that I never miss anything from him again.

aldousd666 1y ago

I watched this last week and my jaw was on the floor. He's both a great technician, and he has the personality to make it interesting. He walked through his testing strategy far enough that you could understand his methodology and the thought process behind it, but didn't belabor it by making us watch it all. Banger!

mikestaas 1y ago

> Programming takes the cake for what is both my most and least favourite part of any build. Nothing quite makes you pull out your hair and ask yourself, 'What the heck have I gotten into?' Like spending weeks programming a robot that just won't work. Eventually though, you fix that one line of code that makes all the difference. And then it's smooth sailing. Well, kind of. I feel this deeply, also this whole video is quality content.

yrcyrc 1y ago

This is absolutely amazing, awe inspiring.

mnurzia 1y ago

Wow! I actually met Aead last week while he was printing parts for this project (we both work at the same place). Surreal to see it at the top of HN.

sarthaksoni 1y ago

This personal site makes me genuinely jealous—in the best way.Really awesome side projects and great intro. Time to raise my own bar.

fitsumbelay 1y ago

this guy's work is pretty amazing I whole heartedly believe that I'll own a gang of (armed) quadrapets for home/property/personal protection within the next 10 years. I'm equally worried that once these become commodities they might be worse than an electric scooters have become to us bipeds on sidewalks but on balance I can't wait

Mawr 1y ago
> a gang of (armed) quadrapets for home/property/personal protection You're assuming you'll be the only one with those capabilities aren't you?

roschdal 1y ago

I don't like these robot dogs.

cryptoegorophy 1y ago

How do we make such robots intelligent? Like you only tell it to learn to jump the rope and then it goes through trial and error(s) to figure out a way to do it, and if it can’t and needs a physical upgrade then it tells you that? (Like a certain gear ratio etc)

scotty79 1y ago
https://developer.nvidia.com/blog/introducing-isaac-gym-rl-for-robotics/ https://developer.nvidia.com/blog/introducing-isaac-gym-rl-f...

scotty79 1y ago

It might be fun to optimize the shape of the rolling contact surface of the capstan drive away from cycloid to make it even better suited for specific application, like a robot dog leg that smoothly runs for miles.

jankovicsandras 1y ago

Very cool robot dog and interesting video! Can the dog climb stairs? Isn't capstan drive temperature sensitive, e.g. the ropes will be shorter in cold and longer in warm wheather?

pillars 1y ago

Some resources related capstan drive: https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1340266 https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1340266 https://fab.cba.mit.edu/classes/865.21/topics/mechanical_design//transmissions/ https://fab.cba.mit.edu/classes/865.21/topics/mechanical_des...

ErigmolCt 1y ago

This is an absolute masterclass in DIY robotics. With a proper battery and a tougher foot material, this thing could really stomp.

amelius 1y ago
Speaking about battery, how much current does it draw while at rest?

evrennetwork 1y ago

[flagged]

froh42 1y ago

What a horrible video is this, with the robotic translated AI voiceover? Update: Ah, weird, if I watch the non-embedded one on youtube it is the original in English with normal sound. It's the one embedded on his web site which has AI translation to German.

indigo945 1y ago
That's not the video's fault, but YouTube's. YouTube has started adding automatic AI voiceover translations to all videos, unless the uploader explicitly disables them for each single video. It's opt-out and the option is well-hidden, so most uploaders will not disable it. As an end user, there's nothing you can do to prevent from seeing them. But you can change the audio track to the original while the video is playing.
- jedimastert 1y ago
  > YouTube has started adding automatic AI voiceover translations to all videos, unless the uploader explicitly disables them for each single video. WHAT?!? It a time when there is a growing animus towards AI generated content, for many content creators this would be tantamount to slander
laughing_snyder 1y ago
https://github.com/YouG-o/YouTube_No_Translation https://github.com/YouG-o/YouTube_No_Translation

amelius 1y ago

It's just a gut feeling but I'd trust a feedback based backlash elimination mechanism more than rope based, especially in the long run and/or with a large deployed base.

heeton 1y ago
But, why?
- amelius 1y ago
  Like I said gut feeling. I suppose over time there may be some play in the axles, for example. Something feedback could compensate for but a rope could not. Anyway good engineering requires extensive testing over many hours of movements.
  - jedimastert 1y ago
    > Anyway good engineering requires extensive testing over many hours of movements. He actually discussed this in an earlier video for his initial tests on the capstan drive. He ended up testing the rope he used for around 358 hours (two weeks) on continuous use in the drive itself with very low backlash https://www.aaedmusa.com/projects/capstandrive https://www.aaedmusa.com/projects/capstandrive https://youtube.com/watch?v=MwIBTbumd1Q&t=10m https://youtube.com/watch?v=MwIBTbumd1Q&t=10m

nickdothutton 1y ago

Similar mechanism might be good for astronomical telescope mounts. Gears are often a problem and nobody seems to have solved it.

throwaway2037 1y ago

Another cool project from this person's blog: "Wrist Mounted CD Launcher" -> https://www.aaedmusa.com/projects/wrist-mounted-cd-launcher https://www.aaedmusa.com/projects/wrist-mounted-cd-launcher It definitely gives off Elysium (film) vibes.

hypertexthero 1y ago

Amazing work, beautifully presented. Geordi LaForge reminds me of Aaed.

einrealist 1y ago

What is the power consumption of these robots? I often wonder how limited and viable autonomous robots really are. When I look at Tesla's Optimus or Boston Dynamics' spectacular robots, how quickly do they need to be recharged?

hinkley 1y ago
My understanding is that those motors he uses are pretty special. And I would expect “efficient” to be part of that special. You’re optimizing for torque and accuracy per unit of mass and energy in this sort of space. I know he talked about them in earlier videos but I no longer recall the details.
- einrealist 1y ago
  Aside from the onboard computing required to power the AI model controlling the robot, which also consumes energy, it is important to be as efficient as possible. However, if an Optimus is intended to replace human labour, such as lifting objects and wander around with it, the energy efficiency of the platform becomes negligible. The platform in the video and the robot dogs from Boston Dynamics are ideal for tasks where they are only limited by their own weight and the amount of computing power required to navigate, such as exploration. I suppose that's why we mostly see autonomous delivery robots on wheels. Or maybe I am being too pessimistic about other platforms...
ovi256 1y ago
> Cheetah robot can run 10.3 km with a 3 kg (465 Whrs) LiPo Battery > the 33kg robot runs at 22 km/h (6 m/s). The total power consumption from the battery pack was 973 watts and resulted in a total cost of transport of 0.5, which rivals running animals’ at the same scale. The 76% of total energy consumption is attributed to heat loss from the motor, and the 24% is used in mechanical work Cheetah was the robot built by Ben Katz, which then went on to electrify Boston Dynamics' dog. Given we've had no major energy density or motor efficiency breakthroughs since 2015, I bet the above still holds. That's a 30 min run at full throttle BTW. So to escape the current killer bots, try to run above a 2h marathon pace for 30 minutes. Source: https://dspace.mit.edu/bitstream/handle/1721.1/108096/Efficiency-Principles-for-Quadrupeds_v3.pdf?sequence=1 https://dspace.mit.edu/bitstream/handle/1721.1/108096/Effici...

kokorikooo 1y ago

The problem with gear is that they suffer from latency.

otikik 1y ago

Nice to see a cuadruped robot that doesn't sound like a swarm of angry bees.

tgtweak 1y ago

I think he'll have success with youtube/vlogging more than getting into the corporate world honestly - especially with some healthy sponsorships and great projects like this.

FugeDaws 1y ago

incredibly impressed everytime i watch one of his videos

syarb 1y ago

This project is so cool! Congrats Aaed. Breaking Taps on YouTube did a really awesome video on a somewhat similar mechanism (I'm no mechanical engineer haha, it was new to me!), rolling contact joints. I love the idea of using string/ropes. Worth checking out as well if this kind of stuff interests you! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQiLLcumqDw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQiLLcumqDw

unicorn_chaser 1y ago

New here and just stumbled upon this. Seen these "robodogs" live in Vegas mining conference. The usage is picking up, their functionality and range of movement is so much more advanced now, and the list of actions they can complete much more complex. Awesome stuff!

ezekiel68 1y ago

I had never seen a rope use a robot dog before so I clicked immediately. It wasn't what I expected from the headline, but very cool nonetheless.

taneq 1y ago

Oh man, that first capstan drive video was awesome and I kept wondering what he was going to do with it. A lot, apparently! This is so cool. Edit: And yes of course, in hindsight, you don't build a leg unless you're planning to build a thing with legs.

zackmorris 1y ago

This is great! The video is the epitome of applying solid engineering principles. Where most stop at a minimal viable working example, it sails past that and gets real work done solving foundational problems, using a waterfall approach that expands leverage at each level of abstraction. Complete with outside-the-box thinking and insights which help save the viewer from repeating unnecessary steps, so that the end goal is reachable using modest tools and readily available materials. I would gladly work with Aaed, and I must admit that I am jealous that he and his friends are living out the dreams that my friends and I had in the 1990s. - The Boomers didn't quite understand what we were trying to accomplish, as they had already done the important work of manifesting the equality that had previously been a dream in the US, so these sorts of innovations were gravy. But Gen X was raised on Star Wars, so will not be withholding mental energy from future generations. Unfortunately we are also victims of trickle-down economics, so have little to pass forward except for wisdom gleaned from the school of hard knocks. We had everything we needed to build these exact types of projects except for the time and resources that were hoarded by our elders. So the vast majority of us worked our lives away, barely making rent by prospecting the internet as miners for people with money, without ever striking gold in the vast majority of cases. Then watched as the fruits of our labors were used to build McMansions, expand monopolistic enterprises like private equity firms, or be simply wasted on frivilous expenses instead of reinvested in automations to create residual incomes. This led to us developing mental health issues like addiction due to the misalignment between the lives we had to live vs what might have been. Then we lost our heroes, like when Y Combinator went from an indie startup funder to a vetting VC like all the rest. And when Elon Musk pulled up the ladder behind him after accomplishing so much, then used his wealth to dismantle the social safety nets which make indie work possible. I don't believe that these statements are political, as they objectively describe the unwritten history of how some became so wealthy while most struggled, and the irony that I write this as I stand on the shoulders of those fallen is not lost on me. Now we have everything we need to build R2D2 and C3P0 right now, today. So I'm hopeful that the next step will be to create a meta economy within the status quo that distributes resources outside of the artificial scarcity created by the previous dominant systems of capitalism, socialism and communism. I believe that a gift economy loosely resembling solarpunk has the potential to liberate humanity from forced labor so that every individual has the opportunity to self-actualize in a reasonable time frame and still experience the joys of leisure time and youth. In practice, this will expand wealth redistribution models like Patreon and the WiX Toolset maintenance fee under an umbrella similar to the Humble Bundle, to level out long-tail effects and socialize gains while privatizing losses. Note that this works exactly the opposite of how most major economies work in the world, with the exception of nations like Norway which uses its sovereign wealth fund from nationalizing its oil companies to pay its citizens a pension that may someday become UBI. I realize that these points are mostly excuses and platitudes. But they are in no way meant to diminish the efforts of hackers - on the contrary, they are intended to bolster them by adding meaning to the work and convey why it's so important to those that came before. So I write this out today to record in the annals of history that the nature of the problems we face is no longer technical, but spritual.