Everybody, Meet "phil":)

Kenny Storm

USA
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Just got my EZ-B today, and I hit the ground running:) This is my robophilo robot. He's the cheapest 20 DOF robot on the market. PHILO stands for "Programmable Humanoid In Lifelike Operation". I Think the creators may have overlooked the cryptic acronym lol. I just set up the AutoPosition with his first movement. I cant believe how easy this is, I got him to this point in just a couple hours:) These are all standard servos, but with all of them running off the EZ-B, the regulators make some serious heat. Even had a couple brownouts. For now I'm using a 12v 3A power supply. The onboard battery is a 2 cell 750mah Li-po (8A continuous 15A max heli batteries lol) that I haven't tried yet.The next step is to give the servos external power, I don't want the EZ-B carrying all that juice:) Here's a short video and some pictures:)




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#20  
Thanks Josh:D Its mostly standard generic futaba s3003's, 5v 42oz in. The ankle toe up/down servos are supposed to be hi torque, don't know the specs on those. I really need to run external power to the servos with a 6v regulator to get a lil more torque. I need that power to get it to walk right lol
#21  
I've almost got the walking thing figured out. This takes lots of balance and strong servos...neither of which I have lol :D I'm gonna replace all the servos with Hitec HS-430BH Standard Deluxe BB HV servos. 70 oz in, and running straight off the battery, no regulator. That's about a 30% increase in torque:D


#22  
He is walking better than my first humanoid.
I am sure with the new servos and some work you will get him walking all over the place.
#23  
Hooray for speech recognition:D

I set up some simple commands, added two servospeed init scripts(move fast, move slow), then added an auto connect script. So yeah, from power up to shutdown, my mouse is officially just for show lol
#25  
Thanks mcsdaver:D Very small update: if anyone is interested, I posted my current project file on the cloud under Examples.
#26  
I love your robot man. Your making great progress. I will watch closely as you work with phil. Maybe ill do a bipedal robot in 2013 but right now im enjoying yours. Keep those posts and videos coming kenny. Its gonna be a long winter.:)
#27  
Hi, let me just say your work is awesome! Now, when operating your Philo on the EZB, does it require a gyro sensor to maintain its stability while standing? I'm creating a humanoid of custom creation, and i just wanted to know.:)
#28  
@RoboticsMaster I am building a humanoid also. I hope to see your build as soon as you start posting pics and videos.
#29  
Nope, no gyros, just big feet and lots of fine tuning:) That works ok on my bot because its not very big. It would be awesome to add a 3axis accelerometer, just need to make sure its analog for fast reaction times. Well, that and I'm out of digital ports lol
#30  
Wow, that's awesome! Well, I need to start building soon, project SIHRO won't start constructing itself; yet, lol. Thanks, for the info, Kenny! Also, nice work on your humanoid mcsdaver! Would you have happened to vacuum form the face? Also, if you two want to check out the beginning of my little robot companion, you can view it here: http://letsmakerobots.com/node/33846
#31  
Today I added a battery monitor. Li-pos are easily damaged if the battery is run too low, and I wanted to be able to watch voltage spikes. My battery is 8.35 volts hot off the charger and 7.1 volts at 80% discharged. (20% remaining) I've been told the service life is longer if they're cycled this way. So, I studied the forum and did the 'ol twin 10kohm resistor trick to pull the battery voltage down to half of what it was, so as not to blow the ADC port. Here's my monitor program example.

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The program creates the variable $Battvolts then updates the variable once per 1000ms. I messed with the multiplier till it matched my voltmeter. If the voltage is less than 7.1v (3.55 per cell) it plays my disable speech sound to alert me, once per second:D It's kinda funny, if I lose the bluetooth connection, ARC reads 0 volts and sounds the alert. I guess its kinda dual purpose lol After I was done, I added $Battvolts to my camera overlay:D
Canada
#32  
Nice mod. I made up a similar voltage divider but my script is an auto connect... if I loose connection (determined by no voltage) it automatically tries to reconnect, also with voice prompts :). I am running a AGM battery, a lot more forgiving, so I just manually watch my voltage with the ADC display, but I like your idea of automatic audio cues for low voltage... have to steal that one:p
#33  
"MY BATTERY IS NOW LOW , PLEASE CONNECT CHARGER" in B9 lost in space voice
#34  
Lol that's awesome:P Find me a sound clip and I'll do it:D
#35  
I have a sound clip of B9 saying "Energy cells exhausted"
#36  
I decided to change the arrangement of the elbow servos. I had been watching Robobuilder humanoid videos on youtube and saw that the servo joint was rotated 90 degrees. I set up some punching and throat chop moves with AutoPosition, then assigned the motions to joystick buttons.

#38  
So,I just downloaded the 12.13.12 update. I was ecstatic to see the camera resolution dropdown:) I don't want to seem ungrateful, but I'm havin some issue here. It seems that the menu only changes the resolution of the processor, but not the actual video capture pin. So the camera is still in 640x480 all the time. I tested this by uninstalling ARC, then installed an old copy(8.08.12-will not upload to anyone, don't ask) when the old resolution menu was still available. Worked crazy fast(30fps) @160x120. Of course, I can't use that copy because there's no autoposition. I mean it, I'm grateful for every update, this software just keeps getting better:)
#39  
@Kenny Storm, awesome! An inspiration for anyone with little experiance to "make it work". I am so jealous of your yet to be newly named robot!.....and thanks to DJ for the EZ-cooling "shield"