Robotics Intensive
Gui Cavalcanti
1/10/2012
Overview
• What is this place?
• Who is this guy?
• What have I gotten myself into?
• What can I expect?
• How do you design a robot, anyway?
• What’s the plan?
What is this place?
What is this place?
• Artisan’s Asylum, Inc.
• Nonprofit community workshop
• 31,000 square feet
• Multiple craft areas
– Welding, machining, metalworking, woodworking,
electronics assembly, sewing, bicycle repair, and
more
• 20-25 classes a month
Who is this guy?
Who is this guy?
• Gui Cavalcanti
– Robotics Engineer and System Integrator, Boston
Dynamics, 2007-2011
– Robotics Engineering, Franklin W. Olin College of
Engineering, 2009
– Lab Manager and Research Assistant, Dr. Gill Pratt’s
Biomimetic Robotics Lab, 2005-2009
– Research Assistant, Dr. David Barrett’s Intelligent
Vehicles Laboratory, 2004-2005
– FIRST Robotics Team 422, 2000-2004
How I Got Started
How I (Actually) Got Started
Past Projects
•
•
•
•
•
•
LS3 (BDI)
BigDog (BDI)
RiSE (BDI)
PETMAN (BDI)
Robot Tuna (Olin)
Shorty George
(Olin)
• Ornithopter (RLG)
• Sidewinder (Olin)
• Serpentine (Olin)
• Autonomous ATV
(Olin)
• Cyclone (Personal)
• 5 FIRST Robotics
(MLWGS)
Past Projects
Most Recent Project
Who are you?
Who Are You?
• What’s your name?
• What’s your background?
• Why do you like robots?
• What are you hoping to get out of the class?
• What’s your favorite robot and why?
What have I gotten myself into?
A Grand Experiment
+
Public, project-based education
A Grand Experiment, Cont.
• LS3: $1,500,000 in components
• PETMAN: $2,000,000 in components
• BigDog: $500,000 in components
• Robot Tuna: $30,000 in components
• FIRST: $6,500 buy-in with donations
A Grand Experiment, Cont.
• Most of you will know more than I do in
your areas of expertise
A Grand Experiment, Cont.
• Teamwork is necessary in robotics, but
teamwork and education can sometimes be at
odds
– Amateurs defer to experts
– It’s easier and less stressful to apply what you know
than force yourself to do something new
– Competition and deadline stress can get in the way of
digesting and learning meaningful things
What can I expect?
From Yourself
• You will get out what you are willing to put in.
From Fellow Students
• Respect
• Help
• Knowledge
• Inspiration
From Me
• Responsiveness
• Learning opportunities
• Project organization
• Responsibility
• Trust
What I expect of you
My Expectations Of You
• Respect for everyone involved, and their
respective skill level
• Openness to feedback
• Lack of design defensiveness
• Patience
How do you design a robot,
anyway?
What is a robot?
• My definition:
– Autonomous physical agent capable of
manipulating the world around it
– Responds to sensory input
– Makes decisions based on that sensory input
Who is a roboticist?
• Myth: Someone who does everything
equally well and operates on their own
• Reality: Someone who has mastery of their
field within robotics, who has had
significant exposure to the other fields,
and can work as part of a team
Robot Design
• Many design styles feed into ‘robot design’
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
Static mechanical design
Dynamic mechanical design
Electrical design
Control system design
Software design
Sensing design
System design
• Each of the design styles in and of themselves are the
subject of hundreds of Ph.D. theses each year.
• All robots require elements of all of these design styles
Static Mechanical Design
• Design of load-bearing robotic
structures
• Straight out of a mechanical
engineering textbook, though
advances in materials and
manufacturing processes are
slowly changing the field
Dynamic Mechanical Design
• Design of moving parts
– Actuation and power
transmission sizing
– Limb design
– Hose and wire routing
– Design for controllability
• Most often dismissed form of
robot design, because it’s
really hard and people assume
it’s largely a solved problem
(like Static Mechanical Design)
Electrical Design
•
Design of electrical control
systems and power systems for
electrical actuation
– Robot controllers
– Communications
– Sensors
– Actuator amplifiers
•
Largely regarded as black
magic compared to
programming and mechanical
design
•
Is its own field, but can be
‘black boxed’ to some extent.
Control System Design
•
Design of the behaviors of robots to
make them usefully autonomous
–
Layered; for example:
1. Actuator control
2. Limb control
3. Localization
4. Behavior planning
5. Goal development
–
Can be completely independent from
actually writing code
•
Most difficult and least understood
area of robot design, for a number of
different reasons
•
“Are we even smart enough to do
this?”
•
Is its own field of study, but sprawls
across multiple disciplines
Software Design
• Implementation of Control
System Design on specific
hardware
• Many different levels, from
firmware to main loop
• Is its own well-defined field,
like Mechanical Design
Sensing Design
• Selection of physical sensors
and utilization of their data in
a meaningful way
– External sensors
– Homeostasis sensors
– Proprioception sensors
• Can be thought of as an
extension of electrical, control
or mechanical design, but I
think it’s significant enough to
warrant its own design style
System Design
•
How on earth do you have a working
robot at the end of all of your
disparate design cycles?
– Sizing power systems to match
actuation and other power load
– Resolving volume, weight and
component placement conflicts
– Routing wires, hoses, structural
members
– Taking a high-level, informed view of
many incredibly specialized fields
– Managing all of the engineering
subteams
•
Optimized parts DO NOT make for
optimized systems
What’s the plan?
Robot 1: Robot Vending Machine
• Purpose: Roam around the space
selling snacks, developing habits
• Requirements:
– Vend snacks on a recurring,
regular (read: Pavlovian) basis
– Safely stop for all humans and
obstacles
– Be capable of rerouting (by
retracing) around fixed obstacles
– Follow a course that covers the
entire Asylum
– Look awesome
– Play music and act in a way that
does not inspire rampant vandalism
Robot 2: Robotic Shop Vac
• Purpose: Roam around the space
cleaning the aisles and inspiring
others to clean
• Requirements:
– Vacuum aisles as it patrols them
– Be rideable?
– Serve as a cleaning center for
Asylum members
– Safely stop for all humans and
obstacles
– Be capable of rerouting (by
retracing) around fixed obstacles
– Follow a course that covers the
entire Asylum
– Look awesome
The Mission
Approximate Schedule
1. Introductions, Brainstorming, Team Assignation
2. Programming and Control Intro and Kickoff
3. Demonstration of Control Systems
4. Top-Level Conceptual Design
5. Mechanical and Electrical Conceptual Design
6. Design Session, Preliminary Design Review
7. Design Session
8. Critical Design Review, Fabrication Plans
9-12. Fabrication
Goals for Everyone
• Participate in a programming and control system design
exercise on a 4-person team
• Participate in conceptual design and component selection
for major subsystems
• Participate in top-level design reviews
• Participate in design integration meetings
• Participate in one design team and one fabrication team
Design & Fabrication Teams
• Design Teams:
– Use components selected during conceptual design
exercises
– Conduct detail design specific to one individual robot
– Conduct design reviews of other robot team’s work
– Create plans for fabrication teams
• Fabrication Teams:
– Fabricate robot based on design team plans
– Debug design issues on the fly
Team Dynamics – Either…
Controls
(Team 1)
Programming
(Team 2)
Mech. Design
(Team 1)
Mech. Fabrication
(Team 1)
Elec. Design
(Team 1)
Elec. Fabrication
(Team 1)
Team Dynamics – Or…
Controls
(Team 1)
Programming
(Team 2)
Mech. Design
(Team 1)
Mech. Fabrication
(Team 2)
Elec. Design
(Team 1)
Elec. Fabrication
(Team 2)
Design Team Roles
• Systems Engineer (1 person): Manages the interaction
between design teams, resolves inter-team conflicts
• Controls Team (3 people): Designs top-level control
system and line to successfully navigate Tyler Street,
and creates controls flowchart for programming team
• Mechanical Team (3 people): Designs frame and
drivetrain components, and mounts for all supported
equipment
• Electrical Team (3 people): Develops the electrical
diagram for the robot, designing the electronics box and
selecting all major components, wire, and interconnects
Fabrication Team Roles
• Production Manager (1 person): Sets deadlines, keeps
all fabrication teams on the same schedule, resolves
design conflicts that cross fabrication team borders
• Programming Team (3 people): Implements the system
developed by the controls team on specific hardware,
lays out lines to follow, debugs robots
• Mechanical Team (3 people): Welds frame together,
machines drivetrain components, assembles mechanical
systems, widens holes/replaces parts/etc on the fly
• Electrical Team (3 people): Builds out and wires
electronics box, debugs electrical gremlins on the fly
Comments? Questions?
Requests?
It’s go time.