Open-source robot - Revision history

Guestblinky: mention hard real-time constraints

2025-04-30T22:21:13Z

mention hard real-time constraints

Guestblinky: mention robot ethics (with links)

2025-03-29T00:08:25Z

mention robot ethics (with links)

DavidCary: link to related articles, etc.

2023-02-01T22:42:53Z

link to related articles, etc.

DavidCary: more links to open-source robots

2023-01-06T07:25:27Z

DavidCary: rough draft, including references.

2023-01-06T06:02:02Z

rough draft, including references.

New page

"A robot is an autonomous machine capable of sensing its environment, carrying out computations to make decisions, and performing actions in the real world."<ref>
IEEE.
[https://robots.ieee.org/learn/what-is-a-robot/ "What Is a Robot?"]
</ref>

A robot is "any automatically operated machine that replaces human effort, though it may not resemble human beings in appearance or perform functions in a humanlike manner."<ref>
[https://www.britannica.com/technology/robot-technology "Britannica: Robot"].
</ref>

Here at Open Circuits, we are most interested in open-source robotics.
In particular, we are most interested in open designs for motor drivers and controller boards and all the other electronics that goes into a robot.
We also find interesting open designs for rocker-bogie and other wheeled robot suspension arrangements, open designs for robot legs and arms and grippers, and open-source software intended to run on robot hardware as well as intended to be used to design improved robot hardware and electronics.

== Complete robots already mentioned on Open Circuits ==

* [[Odroid XU4 Weeding Spraying Robot]]
* [[Vehicle]]s such as quadcopters and other [[Multi-rotor]] flying machines often technically qualify as a robot.

== Robot components already mentioned on Open Circuits ==

Motors, batteries, and the stuff between them:
* [[Servo control]]
* [[Motor driver]]
* [[Arduino Motor Workshop]]
* [[Instructables Stepper Links]]
* [[Battery]]

Sensors:

* [[Piezoelectric transducer]] often used for robot sonar.

Robot brains:

* [[Motherboards that run Linux]] are useful for robots that do any sort of visual processing or WiFi networking.
* [[Microcontrollers]] are useful for robots that balance or need any other sort of quick reflexes.
* Some robots use both.

== possibly related pages ==

* [[Arduino Links]] mentions a few robots
* [[3D Printed Mechanisms]]
* [[Tulsa electronics club]] mentions robotics clubs

== External links ==

* Electrical Engineering & Robotics Professor Dr. Carlotta A. Berry often discusses Open Source Hardware for robots in her blog https://www.noiresteminist.com/ and "Robotics for the Streets" videos https://www.youtube.com/@carlottaberry/videos

← Older revision		Revision as of 22:21, 30 April 2025
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	* Many more-or-less fully autonomous systems are effectively "opaque", making it impossible for humans to even guess exactly how they might go wrong ahead of time: https://www.radicalai.org/killer-robots https://foundation.mozilla.org/en/campaigns/sign-the-petition-and-support-mozillas-call-for-trustworthy-ai/		* Many more-or-less fully autonomous systems are effectively "opaque", making it impossible for humans to even guess exactly how they might go wrong ahead of time: https://www.radicalai.org/killer-robots https://foundation.mozilla.org/en/campaigns/sign-the-petition-and-support-mozillas-call-for-trustworthy-ai/
		+
		+	== Categories of robots ==
		+
		+	One way of categorizing robots is
		+	"How long can it pause and think?".
		+	Some kinds of robots can stop and think at any time for more-or-less unlimited amounts of time,
		+	while others have hard real-time constraints (see [[RTOS]]) with a very short window of time to think
		+	before it needs to respond to prevent tipping over.
		+
		+	Ordered by decreasing response time, such robots are:
		+	* bolted-down arms
		+	* wheeled robots on a fixed rail (need to stop before it hits the end of the rail)
		+	* slow-moving wheeled robots on flat surfaces (need to stop before it falls down the stairs; also stop when it hits a wall)
		+	* fast-moving wheeled robots on flat surfaces
		+	* wheeled robots on irregular terrain
		+	* Whegs ("wheeled legs") on irregular terrain<ref>
		+	[https://engineering.case.edu/research/institutes/integrated-robotics/Whegs "Robotics at CWRU: Whegs"].
		+	</ref><ref>
		+	[https://hackaday.com/tag/whegs/ "Hackaday articles tagged: whegs"]
		+	</ref><ref>
		+	[https://www.diywalkers.com/whegs-wheel-legs.html "Whegs (Wheel-Legs)"].
		+	</ref>
		+	* legged walkers with 6 or more legs<ref>
		+	[https://www.diywalkers.com/walker-abcs.html "The ABC's of Walkers, Big and Small"].
		+	</ref>
		+	* inverse pendulum
		+	* legged walkers with 3 or fewer legs; wheeled robots with 2 or fewer wheels; require "dynamic stability" to stay upright
		+	* A quadcopter or other [[multi-rotor]] helicopter often has gyro stabilization to respond to tipping faster than humanly possible.

← Older revision		Revision as of 07:25, 6 January 2023
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	* Electrical Engineering & Robotics Professor Dr. Carlotta A. Berry often discusses Open Source Hardware for robots in her blog https://www.noiresteminist.com/ and "Robotics for the Streets" videos https://www.youtube.com/@carlottaberry/videos		* Electrical Engineering & Robotics Professor Dr. Carlotta A. Berry often discusses Open Source Hardware for robots in her blog https://www.noiresteminist.com/ and "Robotics for the Streets" videos https://www.youtube.com/@carlottaberry/videos
		+	* A list of open-source, affordable, less-known, or visionary robotics projects: https://github.com/mjyc/awesome-robotics-projects
		+	* Nybble, a palm-size Open Source Robotic Cat https://www.petoi.com/pages/nybble-cutest-bionic-robot-cat
		+	* Bittle, a palm-size Open Source Robot Dog https://www.petoi.com/pages/bittle-open-source-bionic-robot-dog ( https://www.the-diy-life.com/meet-bittle-an-advanced-open-source-robot-dog-by-petoi/ )
		+	* "9 open source robotics projects" https://opensource.com/life/16/4/open-source-robotics-projects
		+	* "Open Source Stories" mentions several robots and other open-source hardware: https://www.redhat.com/en/open-source-stories

@@ Line 43: / Line 43: @@
 * [[Tulsa electronics club]] mentions robotics clubs
 * [[Kalman filter]] is used in highly dynamic robotic systems, such as balancing [[walking robot]]s and [[multi-rotor]] helicopters
 == External links ==