[HN Gopher] PyRobot
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PyRobot
Author : davidfoster
Score : 82 points
Date : 2020-02-01 18:06 UTC (4 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.pyrobot.org)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.pyrobot.org)
| ecmascript wrote:
| Cool, but the main problem I have is that I don't have a robot to
| program and the complexity to build one is way too high for me.
| dbcurtis wrote:
| AWS Robomaker gives you simulated Gazebo environments to play
| with. It aims to be an industrial-strength CI/CD environment
| for PR testing in simulation before deploying to hardware
| (where bugs can have kinetic consequences) so it is reasonably
| featureful.
|
| (Not affiliated, just have friends that work there)
| gjkood wrote:
| I used to coach a FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) Team for my son's
| high school. The main Robotics competition for middle/high
| schools are based on the FTC Pitsco TETRIX, FRC AndyMark, VEX
| Robotics Platforms.
|
| You can find the majority of hardware and electronics you need
| for basic robotics from the following sites:
|
| https://www.pitsco.com/
|
| https://www.vexrobotics.com/
|
| https://www.andymark.com/
|
| http://www.revrobotics.com/
|
| https://www.servocity.com/actobotics
|
| The high costs come into play when you have to deal with high
| precision servos with high torque. The Trossen Robotics site
| gives you an example of high precision servos and pricing.
|
| https://www.trossenrobotics.com/
|
| You can find cheaper robotics options at the following site
|
| https://www.robotshop.com/
|
| When you run a team you start with a budget in the low Ks and
| build out the equipment inventory over several years. There is
| high attrition in many of the electronic parts (Servos,
| Controllers, Sensors) when you compete.
|
| Building basic robots is not complex. Basic navigation using
| techniques such as dead reconing, etc are not complicated. What
| is complex is advanced software techniques for navigation,
| motion planning, etc which rely on some complex math.
|
| Have Fun!
| joshvm wrote:
| This is built on ROS by the looks of it. Most robotics users
| run everything in simulations anyway (have a look at UR arms).
| At a basic level look at Turtlebot. You can add all sorts of
| sensors, simulate environments and even realistic physics.
|
| Even with things like pre-defined movement areas and collision
| boxes, arm planning software sometimes completely freaks out
| and produces weird plans that would probably break things. So
| it's always good to visualise before sending the commands to
| the physical system.
|
| Gazebo is a common environment:
| https://community.arm.com/developer/research/b/articles/post...
| eismcc wrote:
| Thank you! I didn't realize it was that common. Seems very
| useful for building robot AI without needing to keep your
| robot safe In the process.
| m0zg wrote:
| As much as I dislike FB as a company, their FOSS work is second
| to none. Whoever approved the release of this, thanks!
| [deleted]
| DrNuke wrote:
| More cash in advance spares the time needed for mechanics,
| mechatronics & software DIY hassle... which on the other hand are
| the most formative activities to learn robotics for real.
| mrfusion wrote:
| Is this an alternative to ros?
| beisner wrote:
| It's built on top of ROS
| mrfusion wrote:
| How much does it cost to build the locobot?
| acbart wrote:
| Looking over the robots they support, low cost means about
| "thousands of dollars" in this context, right?
| ssivark wrote:
| Yeah, it's currently ~5k USD for a (pre-assembled) robot arm
| that is marginally "useful" (and there are several
| brands/makers at that price point). I've heard of some that are
| trying to push towards the ~3k price point, with somewhat
| poorer tolerances.
|
| I'm excited for the time in the near future when a useful robot
| arm costs roughly as much as a good laptop i.e. ~1k USD.
|
| At that point, it'll become feasible for hobbyists to get one
| each and start playing around. Which will lead to an explosion
| in the variety of things tried, and will positively feed back
| into creating a healthy community, tons of software which makes
| it easier for the next set of people to get involved, etc. Much
| like the PC revolution in the 80s/90s.
|
| At the moment, they're kinda like overpriced toys (for a home
| user / enthusiast point of view) without a killer app.
| kortex wrote:
| We need a breakthrough in low-speed, high torque, lightweight
| motors and geardowns. Basically if we can get economies of
| scale up on BLDC motors with higher numbers of poles (think
| hoverboard motors but lighter), and figure out how to mass
| manufacture harmonic drives, that'll open up the door to all
| kinds of low cost robotics.
|
| Odriverobotics already has brought down the barrier to BLDC
| servomotor control.
|
| Or this thing: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/8613852
| incongruity wrote:
| That progression mirrors many others - but more recently, it
| makes me think of 3D printing and related making technologies
| like laser cutters and CNC mills.
|
| _Good_ 3D printers can now be had for under 1k USD - and if
| you can tolerate some tinkering and modifications $300-$500
| can get you decent results as well.
| OnlineGladiator wrote:
| > I'm excited for the time in the near future when a useful
| robot arm costs roughly as much as a good laptop i.e. ~1k
| USD.
|
| I feel like people have been saying this is the "near future"
| for 20 years now.
| ampdepolymerase wrote:
| The expensive bits are mainly the arms. Strictly speaking there
| is nothing stopping you from running it on one of those sub-
| hundred bots from AliExpress.
| Adaptive wrote:
| Readers of this thread may be interested in lower cost options. I
| built a middle school robotics curriculum around Dexter GoPiGo
| robots: https://www.dexterindustries.com/gopigo3/
|
| While you can do visual/block based coding on these, it also has
| built in Python support and the whole curriculum I ran was Python
| based.
|
| My criteria for selection of this platform included: - support
| for Grove sensors - flexibility in machining own parts if desired
| - Python support - rPi based
|
| (no affiliation with this company, just a positive real world
| end-user/educator experience)
| travbrack wrote:
| Is your curriculum online?
| vongomben wrote:
| Yes please share any links if possible educator here as well
| Wavelets wrote:
| Man, another (potential) foundational AI/ML/Robotics library from
| Facebook. At some point every major open source library in this
| field is going to be run out of a FAANG company. I wonder what
| the impact of this will be in the long run.
| SCUSKU wrote:
| One impact is that a $5,000 robot is labeled as a "a low cost"
| robot.
| detaro wrote:
| Not really. That's just sadly the state of whats "low cost"
| in that market, regardless if you work in FAANG, traditional
| industries or academia.
| agentx3r wrote:
| Foundational seems like a strong word here - this is a thin
| wrapper on top of two popular components from ROS (Navigation
| and MoveIt), and bringup for a specific robot (LoCoBot).
|
| I appreciate the effort here though - ROS feels like it's
| become harder to use due to stale documentation, and there's
| value in providing a simple python API that abstracts the
| underlying bringup.
|
| However looking through the wrapper and its documentation, it
| doesn't feel like it's making it much simpler by hiding away
| standard ROS tools.
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