Drone Flying
Posted inElectrical & Electronics Mechanical Robots

Drone Design Hands On

This post is part of the Hands on Robot Design series. See here for the full list of posts/topics http://robotsforroboticists.com/hands-on-ground-robot--drone-design-series for information on mechanical, electrical, motion control, computing, sensors, and more. The drones designed for the DARPA SubT challenge needed to be great at flying through tunnels and exploring unknown subterranean environments. The plan was to be as aggressive as…
subt robots
Posted inRobots Systems & Sensors

Hands On Ground Robot & Drone Design Series

Hi all, This is a new series looking at the detailed design of various robots. To start with we will be looking at the design of two different robots that were used for the DARPA Subterranean Challenge. Both of these robots were designed for operating in complex subterranean environments, including Caves, Mines & Urban environments. Both of these robots presented…
Book Cover
Posted inMisc Robots Systems & Sensors

Book Review: The Design and Engineering of Curiosity

As soon as I saw this book existed on Amazon, I instantly wanted to read it. It is not often that I see a book dedicated to the detailed engineering design of a complex robotic system. The Design and Engineering of Curiosity: How the Mars Rover Performs its Job by Emily Lakdawalla did not disappoint. It is a fascinating read…
Ford self driving car
Posted inRobots

Ford Self Driving Car

Today I had the chance to see a Ford Fusion self driving car. With all of the recent news it is easy to forget that Google and Uber are not the only players in this game. Most large auto manufacturers have a self driving car program, including Ford. Ford is already testing their self driving cars in Arizona, California, and…
Uber Self Driving Cars Top View
Posted inRobots

Sensors Driving the Uber Self Driving Car

I have had a bunch of questions from friends about how the Uber self driving car works. The simple answer is that I don't know. I have no relation to, or inside knowledge of what Uber is doing. However I can look at the outside of the vehicle and try to guess what sensors I can see. I have only…
mars rovers
Posted inRobots

Mars Rovers

Hi all It is surprisingly hard to find a list of the technology used in the mars rovers. Here is a quick post summarizing some of the technology used in the NASA JPL Mars rovers. The list is only partialy complete since I do not have all of the information. Please leave comments below to help me complete this table…
husky robot
Posted inMisc Robots

Robot Bases (and other development platforms)

Hi all This is going to be a quick post. There are many cases where instead of building a full robot from scratch, you just want to buy a platform. These platforms can serve as the base of your robot that you build upon, or just as a test platform for developing/testing new software with. Here are some of the…
CHIMP disaster response robot
Posted inRobots

CHIMP disaster response robot

Cool robot of the day. CHIMP is the CMU entry in the DARPA disaster response challenge. It can walk, climb, and drive. It is interesting that they developed their own drive joints. If anyone knows why or some details please leave it below in the comments. Will CMU be able to win this like they did in the prior DARPA…