Rafiki Update

Hey David... I get a message saying "You do not have access to view this page within the website"... I thought I was registered on your website...

let me make sure I set the permissions correctly.

try again. it should be good now.

Fantastic David... I am definitely ordering one from you when you start taking orders... Probably a question too early to answer but do you have any idea of the cost and the kits that will be available? Also... Are you planning on having some sort of user programming "hook"? Like using ARC or ROS so users can add their own custom coding of sorts?

I dont know the cost yet as we will have to negotiate with parts suppliers. I can tell you that the prototype cost about $5000 to make (including 2 pods). This is in no way representative of the actual cost as this cost includes everything including 3d printer and every tool used. Also, mass production costs will drastically reduce the cost to build. All of that is waiting on my team getting the the prototypes complete. I have a meeting on Nov 21st and Nov 22nd with my investment team who will then go negotiate contracts and all for the components.

The way that this works is really cool IMHO. The EZ-B and ARC will be available for the user to do whatever they want to do with it. There are other controllers that are proprietary that will contain all of the code to make the core functions work. They will be communicated with from the EZ-B via serial to tell the controllers what to do. Really, this could be anything that can send serial but I am making it include an EZ-B. The software calling these controllers is not relevant as there will be commands that can be passed to start and stop other functions of the proprietary controllers. This allows things like SLAM and mapping to take place off of the main controllers.

The PC will contain not only ARC but also the Rafiki client that will be used to communicate with everything else like external sources of information and other services. These will basically be web services that can be called from ARC and the information can be returned to ARC for use. Also, these services are pretty agnostic as to what calls them. This allows you to call these services from other devices like phone or computers outside of using ARC. The language used to call these services is not important allowing these services to be used with anything that has a web browser and understands REST type connections and either XML, JSON or some other simple data formats.

Man David... This is brilliant.... I was hoping ARC would be involved. This will hide a lot of the complexities from the user which makes is as simple or as complicated as the user wants it to be... Everyone on here is going to want one... I think you have a winner here... :)

Thanks Richard. I am at the part that I really dislike but is needed. The fit and finish of this prototype is really important and it brings me back to the days when I was rebuilding old cars. I can't wait to get back to programming again. Hopefully the bot will be able to have its final assembly in about a week or so. If that happens, I will be a very happy man as the programming can start up again. This is the part that I really enjoy.

One more piece of information to pass along. The head is in 2 pieces. The bottom and top are held together with magnets. This allows easy access to the EZ-B and allows the user to add whatever sensors that they want to add to the EZ-B. This allows the platform to be very expandable which is a major goal of mine.

LOL... I am the opposite... I like the build part more than programming... I like programming too but I think I build better than I program.... :)

Hey Dave, I cant seem to access your website...any part of it.

Edit, never mind i remembered you said to drop the "s"

You should take a look at "Buddy". But I guess that this design will probably be the status quo for this type of robot social robot (interface is the face etc). I believe Buddy was designed by graduates from MIT, but being built in France?!

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/buddy-your-family-s-companion-robot#/

I have seen buddy and have watched his progress. There are some pretty substantial differences although he is a really cool robot.

They seem to have quite alot of investors and made $600k on indiegogo to be able to produce him at such a low price. That has to be below cost. Interestingly, Pepper's companies have agreed to take a four year loss just to get the robot onto the market. I think there is an additional fee with a data package that they recoup some of their losses. Not sure how much for the personal level, but the business model was like $400 for data, plus its a three year lease and have to return it at the end of that lease. Weird business plans.

Pepper is owned by a company that makes a lot of money off of Cell phones. It seems to me like they are going down this path with the robot.

Also, simplicity has a lot of benefits. Removable components scares me. The funding by Pepper and Buddy was impressive to watch. Funding and advertising is key for sure. I am very happy that I have a very substantial backer so that funding things isn't an issue at all.

They have a substantial team of developers for sure. Their robots are both very locked down which to me is a real negative. You can program Buddy, but we all know how easy ARC is to use. Most people can pick it up really well. This is huge. Saying your robot is programmable, but needing to write code to make that happen really locks a lot of people out from making any changes to these robots.

They both have their place and I am very glad that they are both coming out. The market is wide open right now IMHO. It is kind of like computers were in the early 80's. Exciting times for sure. Just let me be the Dell of Robotics and I will be very happy :)

Yes for sure. I've definitely whittled down my customer base by making Alan programmable. I've had to tell alot of average consumers that Alan was designed as a development platform for builders and programmers. Its not a open the box and turn it on and it works like Buddy. I guess if I get an offer I like for the licensing it can get proprietary development.

You're lucky to have an investor with deep pockets. Keep up the good work!

@David.

Quote:

Just let me be the Dell of Robotics and I will be very happy

I'll be waiting for your jazzy "Rafiki" TV adds then :P. Seriously though, I just popped over to your site and had a look. It's all starting to come together for sure. This is going to be one seriously impressive platform, I have no doubt of that. Bank account permitting, I've got my eyes set on one of the Rafiki packages, especially as you can use ARC as well.

To echo what has already been said, keep up the great work you are doing.

Thanks for the encouragement. Btw, a Google Street view car just drove by my house while I was working on Rafiki. Dang spies :)

Ahahahah. They are the ones to watch!

Ready to add electronics and start programming. This is the part that I really like. It is going to be hard to focus on work during the day...

He has a rubberized clear coating on him. Great for grip when moving him and protects the paint really well. It is made for car bumpers and can be pealed off when it gets scratched up. I like the stuff.

First, I need to clean my shop though... that is not such a fun part.

Cool and cute. Kinda looks like a little penguin.

Thanks Dave,

This design was chosen after talking to a lot of people who are not robot builders but are psychologists, therapists, educators, children, parents, business owners, doctors, pharmacists and some other professions. The goal was to have an inviting robot that would have very extensive capabilities and would be a simple design. By simple, I mean from a manufacturing standpoint mainly.

From these interviews we discovered that people are afraid of robots that are too large or look like humans. Simplicity goes out the window when you talk about human form also. If it is too small, it is viewed as a toy and not a useful tool. Children, even serious ones like my granddaughter, are drawn to the shape. Rounded has its benefits from an engineering and strength perspective, but is also more inviting. It also helps with the robot being less likely to be caught on things.

Another interesting thing we found out is that some people don't like arms being extended if the robot is moving. They don't mind them if the robot is stationary. They like arms that retract into the body when the robot is moving as they don't feel like the robot is trying to grab them. This also helps by being able to know the shape of the robot while it is moving so that arms don't get caught on things.

Another thing that was interesting is that people don't like to see the wheels. They prefer the hovering look. My guess is that people realize that a wheel can hurt them and would rather not see them.

It was an interesting study for sure and I have had nothing but positive feedback from non robot builders about the shape of Rafiki. People are scared of my InMoov, but are attracted to Rafiki. The technology that will go into Rafiki is what will interests the more technical people. The shape is not as important to them. There are also some plans to make the body customization with other kits that will snap in place on the body but this is a very long way off.

[Edit to add more information]

The screen being in the head also has a lot of benefits. This not only allows for facial expressions and human interaction, but also allows for an interface that is able to show far more information. For example, if someone were to ask about a mathematical formula, the robot would be able to display this formula and the example information on the screen. This is the natural location that people look when they see the robot due to natural human instincts. The light ring will also provide informative feedback to the user. Having this fairly close to the head is important. Lights on the side of the robot cause the user to look away from their natural instinctive gaze at the robot. The sound from the robot coming from the same location as the light ring is also more natural for the user when the light ring is visible from a normal gaze position. The tablet is removable making it easier on the user who wants to do some programming. It also makes it easier on me when working on the robot and also allows the end user to replace the tablet if there are issues in the future with it (after the warranty period). It is a 10 inch tablet so this allows a lot of options for the end user.

The microphone being away from the speaker and shielded somewhat from the speaker or other motor sounds is also important. I haven't mounted the microphone yet but it goes on the top of the head. The microphone picks up audio at 25 feet away at 180 degrees.

Expand-ability is also very desirable. I didn't want one product that is for developers or makers, and another product for those who just wanted a functioning robot. There will be a very un-populated v4 controller in the head of the robot. This will allow someone to add up to 24 digital devices, 8 analog devices, 4 serial devices, 3 I2C devices and another camera. I dont know of any other robot platform that is as expandable. Additionally, the user can add another V4 controllers or arduinos, or whatever they want without affecting the core functions of the robot.

We will push ARC with this platform for customization programming. In all honesty it can be any platform that can pass serial communications to and from the primary robot controller, and can call external services. This is by design as we want as open of a platform as possible.

All of the components used are consumer purchasable allowing for the user to be able to replace components far into the future. This is also important to me as I don't like it when I purchase something that is locked down to components that I cant get my hands on 4 years after I purchase a product. We will do everything in our power to keep it this way cost permitting.

There have been some really cool advancements made to Rafiki in the past few weeks. The one that I am most excited about is the knowledge system.

I am in an NDA with some of the services that I use, but I can say that Rafiki is able to understand dictation questions very well through speech recognition. It is also able to understand the meaning of the question or statement and uses two different services and determines which of these two services best answers the question asked. This also allows Rafiki to handle things like

"Add eggs to my shopping list" "Remind Steve to do XYZ at 3 PM today" - The next time you see Steve, tell him to do something at 3PM today. "Remind Steve at 3PM today to do XYZ" - set a reminder for 3PM today to tell Steve to do something.

It understands tomorrow, next week, next month and so on. It also understands specific dates. For example, "What will the weather be like today?" is a valid question. So is "What is the forcast for today" or even "Will it be hot today?". Really, any form of the question can be asked including something like "Will it be hot today in Cleveland".

The ability to classify the text that it hears is really impressive. This happens first on the computer running the Rafiki server, and then if needed passes this to an external service for better classification. The classification that happens locally will cover about 80% of the classification needed but the external service does a better job of picking up that last 20% due to the constant training that is happening by this service.

The data that is returned is validated by professionals in the subject matter. I have had a pharmacist ask about a rare drug and had it return the information correctly. I have had a neurologist doctor ask about a rare (1 in 1,000,000 people) disease and it returned the information correctly. I have had a history professor ask about a little known event in history and had it return the information correctly. I have had a lawyer ask it a rarely used legal term and it returned the information correctly. I have had a math major ask it a series of math equations and the information was returned correctly. Same with an engineer and physics teacher. All returned accurate information. This is impressive and I have yet to have a single realistic question asked where the information wasn't returned correctly. Sometimes the questions can have different meanings. The information that comes back is for the most popular meaning first, but also allows you to specify which field of knowledge that you are looking for.

The ability to ask questions in unplanned and unscripted fashion and return the information correctly takes the Rafiki system to a completely different level, which is really cool. I will be posting a video of this before too long (hopefully around the beginning of the year).

Another cool part of this is that when programmers and engineers see Rafiki, they want to volunteer their time just to be a part of this project. We are finalizing the core systems to make Rafiki work. Once this is complete (hopefully in the next couple of weeks) we will be adding additional resources to knock out a lot of additional features. As such, if you would like something added to Rafiki, let me know and I will see how feasible it is to add to the list. I am looking for things like "notify me when x happens" or "be able to tell me information about X (that would be personal to the user and not public knowledge).

Your help in building this list of items is greatly appreciated.

This is really impressive David.... I can't wait to see the prototype do it's thing.... I really want one already... :)

Wow, I'm honored and feel fortunate to be able to watch from the ground up amazing robots like this being developed by amazing people like you and others in this forum. I won't list the others because I may miss one or two but you know them. It's kinda like watching history being made right in front of my eyes. Thanks for sharing this process. :)

But what happens when you ask the air-speed velocity of an unladen swallow?

:)

Alan

@Alan... now, now, you have to be clear... African or European?

@Richard R, exactly. Google Now and Siri both get the joke, and answer appropriately. I haven't tried Cortona yet. I was mostly joking, but actually knowing how it handles funny interactions would be interesting to know.

Alan

25 mph. It also references Monte python.

It uses a European Swallow.

It says that there are 47 species of african swollows. You would have to know which specie.

:) Very nice.

Alan

Wow David, Rafiki is definitely impressive he does kind of look like a penguin and I love all the features he has I hope to get one soon however I am not giving up Gideon, even though he may not go places lol.

Keep up the great work and if anything I can help with please let me know . ??

Wow Dave, your project is really exciting. Will the program you outlined in post 22 be available/accessible outside of buying a Rafiki?

I will be able to discuss more about this after a meeting that I have with my investor and lead programmer on the 21st and 22nd of this month. We will decide which products we want to release and discuss the cost of these products at that time.

First test of subsystems working together in the robot. There are a lot of tweaks that still need to be done but, it moves

David,

Wow ! Are all parts 3d printed ? The design reminds me a lot of Buddy robot, probably is a winning formula no ?

Nice Bot !

Everything was 3d printed.i think it is about 120 parts all stuck together and then bondo, sand and paint.

I have been wanting to remove the ball caster in the back and go with an Omni directional wheel. The ball caster is too loud. The neck motion up and down will probably be switched out to use a linear actuator instead of the servo I'm using. The head is too heavy for the servo. Other than that, I am happy with how it all is working for the most part. I will make changes to the wheel controller subsystem to ramp down when stopping. It stops abruptly right now.

Most of my time has been spent on the build and subsystems. I'm happy with how well everything works together and how simple this design is to program.

David,

I saw the video, it seems the head is shaking a little, probably needs more support.

Does perform well over carpet floors and threshold ? I notice some robots tend to get stuck...

I don't see space for big sensors i read you have plans for slam ?

PS: btw we exchanged a few emails before regarding 3d printers.

SLAM Lidar is in the neck. Carpet and threshold are not an issue once the ball caster is removed.

Neck is shaky right now. This is a reason that stopping needs to be ramped and the servo needs to be replaced with a linear actuator.

David, very nice robot, it looks really good. A linear actuator will be expensive, I had the same head bobbing problem and solved it with a spring damper on the rear of the head, this could save on your production costs.

Tony

Awesome David.... :)

Thanks Tony. I will look into it.

Thanks Richard.

This is what it is all about.

One more then I am calling it a night to spend time with my family. BTW, the robot has been doing tests since about 7:30 AM. That is 13 hours and the battery is still at 13.02 V. It has an automatic cutoff at 10 V. I am impressed with this battery and how little power all of these components use.

Anyway, my little helper again with Rafiki. She actually tested the object sensors for me on accident.

Ha, ha... nice.... She just wants Rafiki to turn the cartoons on again....

Lol, a robot for all the family, including children and dogs :). I like Raifki's voice. Really suits it.

A few weeks back I made the mistake of showing her the Pico projector working with Rafiki to project a movie on the wall. Now when she comes in the house, the first words out of her mouth are "Opa, Rafiki" and then points to the wall that we had used to show the movie.

not fair, i want a robot too, those are the words i got from my Kid today, or why you don't build a robot like that one...

I'm trouble already :)

post/video #42 shows something in the neck, i presume is the Lidar like you said before

Is not too high, shouldn't be lower to the floor ? It seems you have 4 distance sensors but there is a gap in the front of the robot below the Lidar.

Wow! I just checked the Lidar prices and the good ones start at 1000 usd, and there is also a cheap version for 400 usd.

@ptp Curious, why should the lidar be closer to the floor?... Lidar is not your typical arduino ping sensor... It can be used quite differently in autonomous navigation. It is used most notably with ROS... I have been messing with ROS lately and what David is doing is spot on in my opinion....

EDIT forgot to mention that the neck allows tilting of the Lidar up and down

You've been shopping in the wrong place for lidars... neato lidar packages

Lidar is about 100 usd if you shop around.

Also, the neck can tilt allowing the lidar to look at objects at whatever range you want it to look at. It doesn't just have to be used for slam.

@Richard,

My source is RobotShop

Hokuyo URG-04LX-UG01 $1140 RPLIDAR $400

The one you mention can be sourced from ebay, Neato XV-11 Lidar replacement part less than $100.

If David is building a product, i didn't expect the Lidar to be a replacement part, what happens if the manufacturer stops the production for that old model ?

It seems too good to be true $100 compared to $1000

following my curiosity:

searching answers.ros.org for XV-11 a lot of people have issues with the performance (mapping, slam).

I'm only familiar with ROS & Kinect, did you tried the XV11 with ROS ? Do you recommend the purchase ?

After reading a few posts i think i m better served with the Kinect.

Lidar output, is a horizontal slice (array of distance/angle), not a point cloud, so if is located in the neck the area will be a horizontal slice around the neck, for slam asfaik you need to have transformations between the lidar and the base, so making the lidar movable (Pan,Tilt) is not so simple...at least for me ;)

I need to read more about that, i'm only familiar with fixed sensors :)

The ASUS Xtion is better than the kinect... smaller, lighter and unlike the kinect it is powered via usb. No need for a separate power source...

I can only say that the final design is still in the works. This is a prototype to try to see what the best options are. I have 4 of the neato sensors and all have conducted the tests well so far, but that isn't to say that it will be in the final design. There is a lot of room in Rafiki to do a lot of things including adding a different type of sensor for SLAM. The lidar is a first attempt while also doing a lot of other development in many different areas. If it doesn't work out, the neck is an easy reprint. It is a lot better than having to reprint the body. Also, I might leave the lidar as a sensor for detecting objects that are higher and not for slam.

Quantity reduces the cost per item drastically, but building initially with expensive components isn't necessary. Proving the concept is more important initially. Cutting a hole in the body to fit a different sensor array might be in my future, who knows at this point. The design will certainly change over the next few months, but we are trying to keep that to a minimum, but are realistic in that reguard.

I do think that the lidar is the weaker of the two sensors for SLAM and might go with the other sensor in time, but only time will tell for sure.

@Richard

Yes, unfortunately i never found one in second hand with a nice price. I used a step up/step down with my 12v battery.

@David

i agree for a POC results are more important. I think the momentum is great for robotics, Intel Realsense sensor, ORBEC sensor and there is a stereo camera under 500, the DIY sensors like Lidar Lite

you can pick your poison :)

the main driver is a good motherboard/cpu.

Or ... having subsystems that handle a single thing, and report back only important information to the main robot computer.

This allows you to have a much lighter computer running specific systems like SLAM. The advantage to the lidar is that the information stream is lighter and more easially processed. If you only care about say something like a 60 degree field of view, it's really light weight and can be an even smaller computer. Granddaughter just woke up and opa is on duty... looks like I'm away for a while.

If you want to do SLAM you need a 3D Sensor or a Lidar:

1. Most 3D sensors need an USB3 port and heavy processing e.g. iCore (NUC), the exceptions are Kinect v1 (deprecated) and Asus Xtion Live (soon to be deprecated)

2. Lidar you can have a small systems (arduino, teensy, RPI), but the big question is: can a $100 Lidar perform like a $1000 Lidar ?

The Buddy Robot promises to have SLAM and other functionalities for $700, the main CPU will be an android tablet. I'm curious to know what kind of sensor they will use taking in consideration the robot cost.

Oh, believe me, I know what buddy is doing and what they arent. And I totally understand slam and what is needed to make it work.

I have been hesitant to say much but there are a lot of differences between buddy and rafiki. The largest of the is the funding that they have vs what rafiki has. Believe me when I say that there is no comparison. Here are some other differences...

Rafiki can have as many other sensors that you want to add to it. It is extremely expandable.

To use these sensors you don't need to code anything if it works with the EZ-B.

All of my robots will be programmible. There aren't seperate versions.

Rafiki will run for a much longer period of time between charges.

Rafiki will be a whole house robot platform that is expandable. Try telling buddy to come to you when you are at the other end of the house.

The robot is just one component of the entire system and isn't even needed to use most of the functions of Rafiki.

If someone wants to expand the slam capabilities of Rafiki, they can.

The access to external data is limited with buddy.

Buddy is about 1/2 the size of Rafiki.

Buddy runs an android OS. Rafiki can run really any os that supports serial ports. To use ARC for customizations, you can use windows.

If you want to run ROS, or anything else, you can with Rafiki.

If you want a completed robot we will offer that, but when you want to change it up or customize it, it is easy to do.

When parts fail on Rafiki 5 years down the road, you will be able to find them or replacement parts that will work. There is nothing that is a custom part.

There is a lot more that I can go on about. Buddy is a great robot, don't get me wrong. It is not that I think it is lacking in any way. I would buy one if I didn't have someone come to me and offer a very considerable amount of money for me to build Rafiki.

The 675k that they made from their funding effort won't be enough to design and build the molds, design the production boards and pay for the marketing engine. They will need more funds and will probably get it. Unfortunately I think they are short sighted and their robot will be seen as a toy by most who buy it. It won't be easy to upgrade and won't be able to easially grow in its abilities not only from the company selling it or by user customizations.

David,

Thanks for sharing your vision/ideas.

Regarding Buddy i think there is a lot of BS, i don't think it will do all the stuff presented at least the way presented in the marketing video.

I don't think is a consumer product, is not like open the box and the bot starts doing all the stuff, slam mapping, object recognition out of the box.

In my humble opinion Amazon Echo is the closest implementation of a consumer social robot, off course you have siri, cortana, google now on your phone but most people will see a phone.

the AI is already here in our hands.

for example NAO robot costs 8K, 700K for a social robot seems affordable, for example Alan only the (art work/plastic/silicone no electronics) costs the same price.

I think the key is always the price.

Do you have an idea what it will be the entry price/range for your Robot ?

I won't just sell the robot.

Imaging echo working with buddy and tie it into your email, schedule, siri (I use the same service for information that siri uses), add in watson and Google services that have just become available to devlopers for AI type abilities. Now add the most advanced facial recognition product available, and then put an ez-b on it for expandability. Add in the best voice recognition and speech recognition software available, and the ability to use ARC and the ezb or whatever else you want to add.

The robot prototype has cost about $3000 to build if you take out tools and other other expenses. You know how much mass production starts to decrease costs.

The power is in the software. I'll try to explain.

There are independent subsystems that are independently doing one task. These sub systems report back to and take commands from a primary controller. The ezb is also able to communicate to this controller. The software to run everything communicates with ARC. This could just as easially be any other robot platform because the primary controller is managing all of the systems that come with Rafiki. It would work without the ezb or ARC. There is just a hook into ARC.

The ai is a totally seperate system that is constantly running. The core of the ai runs on a server and is used to communicate to the rest of the world's data. It also contains the core data for all of the information specific to the installation. There are pods that are placed in different rooms. These pods all communicate with the server.

Imagine being in your bedroom and being able to ask questions or ask for your from door to be locked. Imagine using facial recognition or voice recognition to have the system change for you or for your child.

If you want to expand your system, add another pod. If you want to have your meeting transcribed, send it to the server and it will do it for you. Speak different languages and have it translated.

The robot is simply something that will attract attention. The power is in the software and in the ability to expand the system.

I am off to my weekend meeting with my investor and lead developer.

So far, Rafiki has its speaker, light ring, arm motors, neck motors, wheel motors, drop off sensors, Object detection sensors and lidar subsystems all functioning. The subsystems communicate with each other where needed. The cameras are working and facial detection and recognition are working great. The accel, gyro, compass and temp sensors are working great. Also, the ability to communicate with ARC is in place. The microphone is working from across the room even with background noise. EZ-AI is running on a server and the client is installed.

In 5 months, we have gone from thought to a 3 foot tall whole house robot platform that can understand questions and provide answers, along with understanding who is using the robot and change depending on who it is. It is very easy to add new sensors through the EZB and is customizable through ARC. This customization doesn't affect the core systems or how they function. This approach also let's you use very simple commands to use these subsystems.

I calculated it today and we have about 1500 man hours in the project so far to get to this point and have spent about $6,000 total on everything to build the prototypes. About $1500 of that can be considered lost due to waste or mistakes. This cost includes all parts, equipment and software used to make Rafiki a reality. There is still a considerable amount of programming to do, but this is the fun part. Making Rafiki come to life is the stage that we are at now. Good times and I look forward to the meetings this weekend.

My hope is to have some answers to some question provided this weekend and to be able to move forward with more funding to bring Rafiki to what I believe is possible with this platform. Being able to prove that what we have said is possible so far is possible will take us a long way to having funding approved to push things further.

Now to see how well Rafiki likes long car rides...

Good luck Dave

May The Force Be With You

On my way back home in the morning to work on some things and get some bugs ironed out. Anyone who has programmed anything knows that the first showing always has some unexpected things happen with it. The good news is that I have had some ideas on how to improve the design of not only the robots plastic parts, but also its sub controllers some.

I got to work with my son some and we were able to discuss how we would like updates to the EZ-AI server to happen. We also were able to discuss ways to disable features which are pay for type features to possibly provide a non-subscription option for those who are interested in that. It would require some more programming and would access it's data from wikipedia directly. This isn't our focus right now but it is being thought about. The spoken words would use some sst stuff that is available on linux.

We setup our server that will be used to authenticate subscriptions and services. This allows this part of the work to begin.

We discussed having different versions of EZ-AI that are more specifically suited to different types of industries and fields within those industries.

We started the EZ-AI plugin for ARC also this weekend.

Hmm, trying to think of anything else other than to say that work will be ongoing through the end of the year to finalize parts of the programming for the bot and for EZ-AI. We still hope to have videos up and start pre-sales of Rafiki and EZ-AI around the beginning of the year for product delivery hopefully by the end of 2016 for the Robot. I strongly believe that product delivery for EZ-AI will be much earlier that that.

Glad everything went well for you Dave. I'm really looking forward to EZ-AI. I believe this is one of the components very much needed today.

Just some changes that will help out quite a bit in working on Rafiki. Also, added a much stronger speaker and made some head modifications. Added some cutoff and power switch, along with 5 fuses to different things. Lets see, basically a rebuild from the ground up from what was posted before. The omni direction wheel in the back is much quieter than the caster I had in the previous videos... The head doesn't wobble when moving anymore. A lot of improvements that required a complete reprint and rebuild using lessons learned from the first build.

I posted a BOM in the public github also.

That music though...... :(

Yea, he is from the same town as me. I like the words to this song. Not a country fan, but, the words have meaning for me.

Remindes me of that great line from the Blues Brothers Movie

"what kind of Music do you play around here ?"

"well we play both kinds, Country and Western"

keep up the great work Dave

Thanks Nick, around here it seems like that is the case for sure. American football, pickup trucks and country music for sure. My daughter went to school with Toby Kieth's children. We now live in the town that Garth Brooks came from. Also Reba, Blake Shelton, Carry Underwood, Trisha Yearwood and so many other country music stars came from around here. I am also related to Mel and Pam Tillis...

I am going to post a rather lengthy (20+ minute) video on Rafiki. It is worth watching to the end if you are interested in how it works/will work and where I am on this project.

I am able to work on this a lot more now for a couple of reasons. The main one is that my son has taken over EZ-AI development and is doing a great job. I just get to be the face and voice of it now, which allows me to work on the robot a lot more.

I will post the video here after it is done processing...

David, Thanks for the video update. It is very informative and gives a great overview. looking forward to the next ones.

Ron

P.S Will there be a Country music plugin?

LOL, only in EZ-AI :)

Hi David, when will the main Rafiki board be for sale on you web site?

Thanks

I will hopefully be able to answer this question after this month is over. There are a lot of different moving parts.