8DOF-Q-3 - Quadruped line follower with Huskylens. Training for TRR contest 2022 - In my garage

[oracid]

The objective here is to make a fast, light and robust little quadruped to compete in the TRR (Toulouse Robot Race) 2022/23. This is now made possible thanks to Geekservos.
At the TRR, the speed track is reserved for rolling line-following robots. The challenge for me is to play in the big leagues, but with a quadruped equipped with the Huskylens camera.
Here is the first test, I hope there will be others.

 

Edited August 10, 2022 by oracid

[Mr Jos]

This is beyond awesome!! Will the track be inside? I think with the sun on the black track it will have more problems.

And it seems to really dislike that one corner, I wonder what would happen if you let it run in the other direction, as now it goes off at the inside.

 

Anyway, love the doggy!

[gyenesvi]

Wow, that's a pretty smooth walking robot! I always wanted to do computer vision with Lego (since I work with CV in my job). I guess the image processing is running on an Arduino, right? And that controls the geekservos as well.

[oracid]

I think there would be no problem going the other way, but it's a good test to do.
Yes, the future TRR is planned inside, but despite everything, if there is too much light, it's a disaster. That's why I did the test in my garage.
Yes, the microcontroller board is an Arduino Nano and the camera is a Huskylens. I did a very similar 12 DOF, but without the camera, here, 12DOF-Q-3 Quadruped whith GeekServos - LEGO Technic, Mindstorms, Model Team and Scale Modeling - Eurobricks Forums

 

[oracid]

Here is the video of the second test I did at 9 p.m. to avoid sun glare.
New are the long neck and the slippers.

 

 

[oracid]

The training day at the Toulouse Robot Race.

 

[Mr Jos]

That's one adorable line follower! Nice test run.

[oracid]

29 minutes ago, Mr Jos said:

That's one adorable line follower! Nice test run.

Thanks. I hope it will be faster in June 2023, at the next TRR, on a bigger circuit.

[Toastie]

I missed the original post - damned merge of forums ... no, all is good

I have been building a line follower with RIS1.0 - it really was fun (particularly when kindergarten folks were visiting the lab), but then, with follow-up releases it became ... less exciting, as the principle of following the line (one light sensor, 2 light sensors, higher sampling speed) remained the same.

Your bot though is so different. I love the way it moves (you don't have a dog by any chance, do you?), it really feels organic. I have followed your quadruped approaches (well, I watch every of your videos, of course - it does not get much better!) but missed this thread, merde.

Really nice work, and I feel some sense of love for the animal here ... (2 cats + 1 dog in this house )

I don't think it needs to be faster (other than for a contest on the clock) - it moves smoothly and that should give you all the points you need for winning.

Best regards,
Thorsten

[oracid]

Thank you @Toastie

I don't know what is RIS1.0. Could you tell me about it ? Oh, yes, I had 3 dogs in all. But not anymore to day.

Here it was a post Covid TRR with a small circuit. Next June, a big circuit is planned, with many more people.
Things are like that ! Always faster, bigger, stronger. . .

[Toastie]

2 hours ago, oracid said:

I don't know what is RIS1.0

Oh, you do :D

Spoiler

That's the Robotics Inventions System (#9719), which contains the RCX1.0, the one with the environmentally friendly 9 - 12V AC/DC socket.
So you are right: There is no RIS1.0, there is only RIS. But there are RIS1.5 and RIS2.0!

As they probably did not envision that one of their marketing geniuses figured out that getting rid of a few capacitors, a bridge rectifier and a low voltage socket would bring down the cost of the RCX significantly (about 5 cent upon part acquisition and assembly), they got rid of that stuff, made the RCX all battery, and called this "improved" version "RCX1.5" and the set Robotic Invention System 1.5 (#9747). And even later they called it RIS 2.0 (#3804) containing the RCX2.0 - with no changes at all to the PBrick, only the downloadable firmware was updated, and a few parts changed along with new instructions and challenges. Every RCX1.0 runs absolutely smoothly with the RCX2.0 firmware - that is why I only have the RCX1.0's floating around here :D

All the best,

Thorsten