Pepper Robots are starting to appear on the second hand market, ebay etc. Some are even "not working" models for around $2500 US. Shipping from Japan sometimes appears to be more expensive than the robot itself.
I was considering buying a broken one and my logic was I get the casing servo's motors screen in a professional robot shell, but not really sure the level of complexity in hacking these and integrating servos cameras sensors with EZ-B and if it is really worth the money or better off building an inmoov or similar. I printed an inmoov hand and forearm but time 3D printing cleaning up, servos etc... and I can't use in a business setting as the license is restricted.
There is a tear down with photos here but not really a lot of details. https://tech.nikkeibp.co.jp/dm/english/NEWS_EN/20150625/424978/
Yes most definitely you are going to have to figure out (reverse engineer) how to drive those (most probable) proprietary camera, sensors, motors and servos... If you are an electronics engineer then maybe go for it... Otherwise If I were you I would put your money towards building an inMoov rather than hacking a still very expensive second hand Pepper...
Hello Nink, most of us start with a pre existing robot body and gut the electronics. It is very normal. What I would do however is start with a less complicated robot. I made the mistake of being too complicated when I first started and became frustrated with the time it took to make EVERYTHING work. Many started with toys like Wall E, Omnibot 5402, or Omnibot 2000 ( 5404) , Roomba, Rovio, Recon Rover, Brookstone Rover, Wowwee branded toys and more. I have a Large Omnibot 2000 for example and they are great if you want a bigger bot. also others may have a robot donor hear to sell which could save time and money trying to find a good one.
Hi Jstarne1, Yep done all that, Hacked the meccanoid, built a telepresence bot from a Roomba, pretty good collection of various Humanoids bots I have working and a large selection of EZ-Robots.
Really looking to build something that looks professional for a greeter / way finding bot.
example Hi Josh how can I help? I am looking for the shampoo. Sure it is in isle 5. Where is that? follow me. All fairly basic but really wanted to look professional for a prototype.
I was in Tokyo in the summer I played with a couple of Peppers and was very impressed in their clean design and capabilaites. IBM has intu a robot development platform that works with NAO and pepper and I want to go that route but I can't afford to fork out 30 to 40K for a pepper and If I buy a non working one and can't get it to work I have thrown 5K away or perhaps I can salvage with EZ-Robot. https://github.com/watson-intu
Ok , in my humble opinion if your looking for something to really shine then 3D printing may be your way to go. It can be original, customized to what your looking for as well as cheaper. The only problem with a pepper is that if your project is really good people will think that’s just because it is a pepper and not ez robot or your own creative mind and effort put into it
The only downfall to the pepper is it’s physical ability. The bands and arms can’t actually do anything and lack precision. The advantage to having a clean professional look with a wheeled base is nice, however
But the usefulness of the arms and hands would be challenging to work with.
Now the inmoov isn’t much better. The hands are really awful to work with. But the arms at least have great precision of all joints. The fingers are only decoration - if crooked fingers can be considered decoration :D
The inmoov does give you a fun challenge of printing and building. Where the pepper gives you a lighter challenge of hacking, with less capability at the end though.
If those are the two options... So since they both have hand issues, I’d go with the inmoov and work on making it better.
Thanks ok perhaps I will go inmoov route I just wish Gael would remove his CC-BY-NC limitation as it really limits what can done if you can't do commercial work.
Haha well, Gael is a super passionate and talented artist and doesn’t care about business or money - he prioritizes recognition for his work. Perhaps if you created something based on inmoov that had commercial value, it would also include significant awareness - maybe that would change his mind. He just wants to be recognized and awarded for his passion. A commercial viable application may provide enough recognition that I bet he’d consider an exception to the licensing.
Consider the fragility of an inmoov. Have you ever seen one that fell over? Not a pretty sight. Even if the license allowed it, I wouldnt dream of putting one in a store unsupervised. I wouldnt even dare put one on wheels full stop.
From what you describe, I dont really see why you would want a humanoid robot though. It makes everything more complicated an expensive, while at the same time, a non humanoid robot could be more fun and much more practical. Unless you achieve near perfection, a humanoid robot will always look awkward and, well, not very professional because we expect humanoid to move and behave like humans, which we know is really hard to pull off. OTOH, who wouldnt want to be guided to the correct isle by something resembling a Wall-E ? and that would be far easier to achieve