My 1st Life Size Robot Build

Rob-bot

USA

Hello All,

this is Rob-bot. He is my first shot at building a life size robot and 90% of him was custom made by me. I started him approx. 3 years ago in my spare time (working family man) and slowly built him piece by piece. I admit I did steal some of his look from Johnny 5, but it was because I love Johnny 5's look and wanted mine to resemble him a little bit. He is 100% battery operated, utilizing 4 12v 35ah batteries and uses 12v and 24v components. His normal standing position he is 6 feet tall and can stand straight up to about 6.5 feet tall. All of his actuators/servos are rated at 150lbs or more with the exception of his hands and his body is made from high quality thick aluminum alloys and stainless steel. Also, all moving parts have ball bearings. Both of his eyes are HD night vision cameras and the tiny hole between his eyes is where the EZ-Robot cam is located. His nose and mouth are high intensity leds and his mouth moves in sync with the words he will speak. His ears are 300 watt motorcyle speakers that are connected to and amplifier and in sync with his mouth for words or music. I accented him with a miniature spinning satellite dish on top of his head, a plasma light effect on his chest and high intensity color changing leds throughout his spine for a glowing effect. Now that he is finally built, I am ready to start learning how to program him via his EZ-B V4. My programming skills are no where as good as my mechanical skills, so I'm hoping between my knowledge of electronics and the tutorial videos and all of you, my fellow robot enthusiasts, I will be able to finally complete Rob-bot. And thank you to the many of you that have already answered some of my many questions and your patience. I hope you all enjoy the pics...

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By — Last update

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#2  

What Alan said... but without a video it's just a robot statue/paper weight... :P

#3  

Thanx Alan.

Thanx Richard, I think... confused

Canada
#4  

Great job Rob-bot. Lot of hours put into your project. Good luck with programming! I'm more of a builder then a programmer but ARC makes it pretty easy. I was able to make sense of it. Start off with simple stuff and work your way up to the harder stuff, small steps.

PRO
Belgium
#5  

Wow thats a mega cool robot.terminator 1000

#6  

"Great job Rob-bot. Lot of hours put into your project. Good luck with programming! I'm more of a builder then a programmer but ARC makes it pretty easy. I was able to make sense of it. Start off with simple stuff and work your way up to the harder stuff, small steps."

Thanx 3DPrinterguy. I'm taking baby steps, like you said. I waited 3 years to build it, so what's another 3 years to program! ??

"Wow thats a mega cool robot.terminator 1000"

LOL! Thanx Nomad. I tried to make it look friendly, to eventually take it to my 6 year old son's school for the kids to see and hopefully inspire them to get into robotics, being it is a STEM school.

#7  

Very, very cool!

I think you'll find programming easier than you think. Follow the tutorials and you'll get the hang of it!

Can't wait for a video!

BTW - he looks friendly to me :D

#8  

Awesome build..that took a lot of time and skill to get it done! :)

PRO
USA
#9  

Looks great! What an awesome build!

#10  

For the body and arm parts, did you find parts you could put together, or do you have access to a CNC mill or something to cut the metal?

Like Warpig said, the programming with ARC is pretty simple, although the fact that you are largely custom without a lot of servos adds some complexity. As you are aware by now, the community here is always happy to jump in and help figure stuff out.

Alan

#12  

Rob-bot, Beautiful robot, that baby took some effort! It looks very heavy duty, and well built. After building that, you will do well with ARC. Steve S

#14  

Thank you all for the kind words. All of your compliments are motivating. I would love to do a humanoid once, Rob-bot is complete.

#15  

"For the body and arm parts, did you find parts you could put together, or do you have access to a CNC mill or something to cut the metal? "

Thetechguru,

Unfortunately, I had to fabricate all of the pieces the old fashion way with scroll saw, drill press, disc and belt Sanders, grinders, hydraulic shear, break welding and other manual type machines, but the good thing is that I was able to use a friend's shop and Drew all of the parts first on a CAD program to make as few mistakes as possible. So far I have spent approx. $6k to build him plus all of the blood, sweat, tears and time of course.

Overall though, it's the compliments from the fellow robot enthusiasts, friends and family that make every bit of the effort worthwhile. Most of all, my 4 year old daughter and 6 year old son love Rob-bot and have a big smile every time a part gets added and when he moves and talks during testing. I will post some test video links for everyone to see as he progresses.

United Kingdom
#16  

@Rob-bot, a great looking robot and very well engineered, especially if most of the parts had to be made the old fashion way. It’s a fantastic achievement you should be very proud of what you have done!

Can’t wait to see your videos of him moving.

#17  

Thanx CEM, I appreciate the kind words.

#18  

Fantastic build. It's nice to see another large scale robot. It reminds me a lot of my ARMadeus Mk. 7 project that I posted here a few years ago. Linear actuators are also some of my favorite mechanical components. My current Mk. 12 version, now under construction, will have torso, arm and head movements similar to yours. I guess great minds think alike. The Mk. 12 is using 3 linear actuators, 2 servo City gearboxes, and 4 EZ-Robot HDD servos. Keep up the good work. Programming a robot using the EZ-B v4/2 is surprisingly easy.

Jim Milan

Belgium
#19  

Waw, I'm impressed ! Congratulations !

#20  

Thanks for the comps guys.

"It reminds me a lot of my ARMadeus Mk. 7 project that I posted here a few years ago."

Jim, could you send me a link or pics to your ARMadeus bot. I would love to see it.

Yeah Jim, I think for full size bots, linear actuators and industrial size servos are perfect for the money. I also, came up with a more simplified and cheap way to make linear actuators with feedback instead of paying over $130 for one built in. The link is on this forum in recent activity.

#21  

Rob-bot

Here's the link to the Mk. 7 version I built 5 years ago.

ARMadeus Mk. 7

And here's the link to ARMadeus Mk. 11, completed last summer. Rather than build a completely new robot each time, I'm now going with a universal base concept. The Mk. 12 now under construction will be a new personality module that mounts on the Mk. 11 base. The torso, arms, head assemblies for the Mk. 12 are nearly completed. Only, wiring, electronics, lights, sensor array, and programming are left to do.

ARMadeus Mk. 11

#22  

Jim, that is an awesome robot! I remember seeing it on the cover of servo magazine. I believe I still have that issue. Great machining and wiring skills. Very professional looking. It reminds me of the early 80's style robots, but with a lot more modern functionality. I believe they were referred to as Intellibots or something like that. I love the vintage scifi robot look, thats why I went with a look similar to Johnny 5. I can't wait to see your next bot.

#23  

Rob-bot,

Thanks. It was a fun build. It's taken nearly two decades of tinkering to get to this stage. I'm pleased with the decision to go with a universal base concept. Having all the shared resources, power distribution, computer control, servo power, motor controllers, and pneumatics in a modular base greatly simplifies the process of changing the functionality of the robot. I put a lot of thought into optimizing the mechanical and electrical interfaces between the modular subsystems. This allows me to easily disassemble and reassemble the robot for transport.

The Mk. 12 should be completed this summer. It uses the same grippers as your bot. I'll be posting details when it's done.

#24  

I can't wait to see the finished bot and some video.

I'm hoping too to be done with Rob-bot by the end if this summer. I would like to try building a humanoid, but not sure if I want the 3D printed being they are kind of flimsy. I would like to use all lightweight alloys to give it some strength and a metallic look.

PRO
Synthiam
#25  

Really love this robot - any idea of when we'll see a video? Would love to have it included in a news letter someday!

#26  

Dj Sures i know its off topic just want to say love the news feed artical about a.i and safe robotics, people need to know that with greatness comes responsibility and that awareness is key with a.i and im glad ez-robot is here to give people that understanding, And Rob-bot love the bot youve built i cant wait to see a video on it, it look amazing keep up the good work my friend

#27  

"Really love this robot - any idea of when we'll see a video? Would love to have it included in a news letter someday!"

DJ, I should be posting some test videos soon. I just finished adding all of the potentiometers for feedback, to the linear actuators. I just need some play time to practice programming with the EZ-B V4. I also, got sidetracked the last couple of weeks restoring a 1954 Silvertone console TV I picked up at a really good price. I know... I have too many hobbies. eyeroll

#28  

" I know... I have too many hobbies. eyeroll"

Hmmm, I doubt that! :D

I'd be willing to bet a servo that a majority of the people here have many, varied interests that they jump between. I enjoy building/collecting replica movie props, my EZ-B interests overlap with building my life-size B9 robot, I enjoy plating music (guitar) as well as trekking off into a forest or swamp to do some photography. There's never enough time...

I've come to believe that my original homeworld had a 36-hour day rather than 24. :P

#29  

Looks like an amazing robot! Very cool work!

David

#30  

Awesome build!

Yes.... Yes... must have some videos for this bot....