Dorian - Retro Style Humanoid Robot

Sebediah

Sweden
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Earlier this year I introduced myself and my first robot on these forums but it was a General Discussion post and so now that I've made some progress on Dorian I thought it's time to make a proper Project Showcase for him.

Dorian is a fairly small humanoid robot with a retro style design. He stands about 40 cm tall and has a build quite similar to the JD humanoid robot, with the addition of two hip servos and an ultrasonic distance sensor. The chassis is my own design, while the joints and brackets connecting servos are modified versions of EZ-Robot designs. The general goal for Dorian is to have him join me at various events and have him interact with people, but more importantly, have people interact with him. I'm hoping I'll be able to make him smart and engaging enough for people to feel inspired about social robots and realize how advanced robots we can actually make today - if using the right products and knowing the right community ;)

In my previous post some of you were asking about seeing him in action and if he could walk yet. Today I uploaded the first video with Dorian's walking animation so I hope you'll give it a look and hopefully you'll enjoy! He may look like a drunk toddler but atleast he's moving forward...! Sort of.

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PRO
Belgium
#1  

Awesome’i like dorian

#2  

I really like Dorian! I'm looking forward to seeing more of him.

#3  

Hahaha...now I get to see the tricks you are teaching him! I opened the other thread first!

Just saw the cat cruising by! Sooooo funny!:D :D

Portugal
#4  

Hi Sebediah, how do people interact with your robot?

#5  

@Nomad and @JustinRatliff thanks! @Mickey666Maus Dorian is learning new tricks faster than our puppy! Haha. And yeah... that cat is up to no good, trust me. @proteusy Right now I would say people don't really interact much with Dorian at all. It is a long-term goal of mine to make him a fun and social robot for people to interact with.

PRO
Synthiam
#6  

As I said before, love this robot! Well done in getting him to walk and interact like that. The cat knows he's been replaced with a robot :)

Thanks a bunch for sharing the video! Looking forward to seeing more as Dorian learns

#7  

Haha thank you very much DJ! Our cat has had a rough few weeks indeed. First we got a puppy who's stealing all the attention, and now Dorian is going to annoy her even more.

#8  

Work on Dorian has been somewhat slow as we are in the process of moving to another city, but I've at least had the time to do some much needed upgrades for him, so this is the latest update to my little humanoid project!

Part 2 will be up in a few days or so!

PRO
Belgium
#9  

very nice update.speaker idea is great.

PRO
Canada
#10  

Thanks for sharing the updates with us @Sebediah

Dorian is looking great! I'm looking forward to see part 2!

I'm also very impressed that you were able to do all your designs with TinkerCAD! I've used the software, and while being easy to use I know how difficult it is to make complex designs.

Oh and good luck with the move!

PRO
Synthiam
#11  

Wonderful update! I really enjoyed that you showed the robot first in the video, and later talked about the details on the modifications. It's neat to see what software you 3d design with. I hope your youtube channel gets the attention it deserves!

#12  

@Sebediah, thank you for sharing that, I really enjoyed seeing the update and your break up the parts is brilliant! I take it you don't print as much support material either? I love the internal loops for wire tie attachments too! How does your XYZ printer do on printing the servo hubs?

My XZY printer stinks at printing the servos hubs specifically or I specifically stink at printing them, I can't till which.

#13  

Thank you all for the nice comments! It did take a while to put together this video (and the next one) so it's very encouraging to get such positive response.

@Patrick Glad you enjoyed the update! I'm also very fond of the new speakers, hehe.

@Jeremie TinkerCAD... for me it is the very definition of a love/hate relationship, haha. I'd never done any 3D modeling when I started designing Dorian so it felt like a good place to start, now I've been too lazy to go on to a better alternative. The weird glitches and other heartaches that TinkerCAD so generously offers have made me ragequit and shut off the PC at more than one occasion, haha.

@DJ Thanks! Happy you liked the update. I'm thinking the channel might get a bit more attention once I can keep a more steady flow of videos coming from time to time. It will certainly be easier to make more content after we've moved to the new place. For now I'm happy with the way things are going though, got a handful of loyal followers so can't complain, haha.

@Justin That's right, with the way I'm printing them now I'm barely using any supports at all which I'm very happy about. From my experience, the XYZ really struggles to print servo hubs if printed in any angle that requires supports in there. That was one of the main reasons why I ended up making new designs for pretty much all of my joints. Now that they're split into two parts, I can print the part with the servo hub lying flat on the printbed, using no support what so ever inside the hubs. Fine detail, slow print time and very high infill and they turn out really great. I printed a few test pieces just to abuse them on a dead servo I have, and they showed no signs of breaking or crumbling the way they used to!

Thailand
#14  

I just join this website, and your post is my first visit. You have done nice robot which I hope to do too.

#15  

Hello there bunnam, welcome to the community! As someone who's still very new to building robots, let me just say you've come to the right place, hehe.

Take a look at the other robot showcase posts, there are many amazing robot builders on these forums!

#16  

Sebediah, I really like the Retro Look. You have built an interesting Robot, and made great updates. Thank you for sharing. Steve S

#17  

Thank you Steve! That means a lot coming from someone who's built so many cool looking androids!

PRO
USA
#18  

@Sebediah, Nice work ! I like the retro style ...

One question: the head consists on 6 individual plates or L + R + F + a block ?

I'm hands full but ... do you have plans to share your head design ?

I would like to design a new Head for JD and maybe for six too.

I did a POC using cardboard and 2 BW oled for the eyes and a microphone array.

Unfortunately i run out of time and space to fit all the electronics... User-inserted image

I'll came back later.

#19  

Hey @ptp! What a coincidence, you're the second person to ask about my head design today, had someone else requesting it on youtube as well I'm so flattered! Haha.

The head consists of 6 different plates yes, same as the chest chassis. My plan was always to share all of Dorian's designs with the community, but I've been holding that back since there have been some imperfections with some of the designs, leading to me printing or adding other small extensions to fix them without having to re-print the whole piece. I've been too busy (which means too lazy) to permanently add those modifications to the designs. So I was hoping I could do that before sharing the designs so anyone who wants to try them out can do so without any hassle. I can try to fix up the head so I could at least make that available quite soon. We are moving to a new place right now so I'm a bit pressed on time, but I could try to maybe do it at some point next week if that's okay?

Also, you wouldn't happen to have a link for that microphone array of yours? It looks really cool and I'm looking for new microphone solutions for Dorian later this summer.

PRO
USA
#20  

Quote:

I could try to maybe do it at some point next week if that's okay?
Don't rush I'm hands full... Take your time

Quote:

I'm looking for new microphone solutions for Dorian later this summer.
I'm using different hardware solutions: mono, stereo and 4 array versions, all of them require an extra processor. Currently I'm using a Raspberry PI Zero (low cost ) and I've developed a Linux application to allow ARC to connect via WIFI and obtain the sound packets. The other option is to connect the RPI zero directly to EZB, both solutions require additional research and coding. I'll share the results.

#21  

Ah yes, from what I've gathered on the forums, installing a microphone on a robot has many challenges to it. I've been wondering where to start.

I'm really looking forward to seeing your results on this subject! And about the head design, I'll see when I have enough time but I'm sticking to the plan of maybe getting it done next week, I'll let you know.

#22  

Here's part two of my upgrade series of Dorian, in case anyone's still interested! :)

#23  

I enjoyed the video! It shows off even more of the re-design details. Have you posted Dorian's gripper .stl files online anyway because I'm really liking how those turned out! I'd love to print set if you don't mind sharing?

PRO
Belgium
#24  

Very nice long video of dorian’love the idea with the plant’

#25  

@Justin Glad you like the hands! Yeah I don't mind sharing the designs, there's a tiny touch-up I want to do on them now, since that part I printed required a bit of sandpapering that I didn't intend. The move is keeping me very busy, we'll officially be out of here next Tuesday, so would it be okay if I fix them up and upload once I'm in the new place? Got the same deal going with Dorian's head design and @ptp, hehe.

@Patrick Thank you, glad you enjoyed the video! And of course Dorian needs to experience some nature as well! Haha.

#27  

Ahh yes, that was a very nice scene in that movie :)

PRO
USA
#28  

Nice work. So what's come next (video) ?

#29  

@Sebediah thank you and yes of course, take your time.

PRO
Canada
#30  

Thanks for the sharing the assembly process with us @Sebediah

Dorian is looking great, can't wait for the new paint and walking animations!

#31  

@ptp Once I've settled down in the new place it's time to get really busy with the coding. I'll start simple and work myself up from there, make nice autonomous behaviors for Dorian when walking, sitting around, and so on. I'm also really looking forward to putting some effort into his conversational AI, I've been working with some ideas in the background so will be very exciting to see how they translate to Dorian instead of just running on the PC.

@Jeremie Thanks a bunch! I'm also really looking forward to the new paint, not just because it will make him look nice and shiny, but because once that is done Dorian will be starting a little project together with my girlfriend...

PRO
Belgium
#32  

sebediah

is it posible to get the script from dorian when he's standing and look arround?

#33  

@Patrick Certainly! I'm not at my laptop now so I don't have the code here, actually I'm not even home at the moment, hehe. Tomorrow I will be back, I can put it up here then if you want, it's very simple though, basically just a couple of GetRandom() functions in a small loop :)

PRO
Belgium
#34  

great thanks something new to learn.

Thailand
#35  

@Sebediah Thanks for your 2nd clip sharing, It's made me more understanding especially for the movement.

#36  

@bunnam Very happy you liked the video!:) With these new joints and servos, Dorian's movement is going to improve a lot in the future.

#37  

@Patrick Here's the code you were asking for. It's very simple and easy to set up. You can make lots of duplicates of this script if you want your JD to do other things randomly like this.

#This loop will make the robot look around randomly from time to time.

:idlestanding

#Change the SleepRandom if you want him to look more often, or less often.
SleepRandom(7000,15000)

#These are the ports for robot neck servos, so change these to whatever ports you are using.
#You can also change the minimum and maximum range for them if you like, I kept mine quite moderate since I don't want the microservos to make too much noise.
ServoRandom(d8,80,105)
ServoRandom(d9,80,120)

Goto(idlestanding)

Remember to make sure your robot's neck servos are set to -1 when running this script, otherwise the robot will just keep whatever degree your current AutoPosition frame is set to. Hope this helps and let me know if you run into any problems!

PRO
Belgium
#38  

sebediah

thank you very much.i will try this.

PRO
Belgium
#39  

i tested and did some testing.i added a servospeed and sayezb.its awesome. also i use a original jd,so its d0 and d1

This loop will make the robot look around randomly from time to time.

:idlestanding

Change the SleepRandom if you want him to look more often, or less often.

SleepRandom(4000,13000) sayezb(" aha ") #These are the ports for robot neck servos, so change these to whatever ports you are using. #You can also change the minimum and maximum range for them if you like, I kept mine quite moderate since I don't want the microservos to make too much noise. servospeed(d0,4) servospeed(d1,4) ServoRandom(d0,40,150) ServoRandom(d1,75,120)

Goto(idlestanding)

#40  

Very nice Patrick, I'm glad you found it useful! And yes, it's good to have the servo speed in there unless you already have it set. My servo speeds are set when Dorian is powered on so I don't need them in that script. This is a good code for you to expand on if you want, you can add some if statements, throw in some AutoPosition animations if you want. Anything to make your robots come to life :)

We are moving tomorrow morning so I won't be on the forums for a few days, goodluck and have fun coding!

PRO
Belgium
#41  

happy moving.i am not a programmer so i would not know what if means.

#42  

Hello again everyone! This summer has been too busy with the move to our new place (still ongoing) and various other things taking up most of my time. I did however get to spend some time up north at our cabin, and this time I managed to bring Dorian with me!

Here's a video of Dorian enjoying his time up north. I hope you've all had a great summer and getting ready for some real robot tinkering this winter!

PRO
Belgium
#43  

sebediah&dorian

very beautyfull and peacefull video.

PRO
Synthiam
#44  

So peaceful he fell asleep on his face:D I liked that video. It was very relaxing and nice to see your summer getaway. Thanks for sharing

#45  

What a cute video. Thanks for taking the time to do this for us. I really enjoyed it. Poor little guy doesn't do well walking through the woods. LOL.

Funny, you have a "Up North" in Sweden. Here in Wisconsin, USA was also have a "Up North" in northern Wisconsin and it looks a lot like yours. A little further "Up North and we're in Canada. Up North is always Heaven on earth.

#46  

@Nomad & @DJ Thanks! Glad you enjoyed it.

@Dave Haha yes, I was rather surprised he even managed to take those steps before falling... the way he currently drags his feet he's really not good at walking on any surface other than indoor floors. I definitely agree with you, I've always been a big fan of Up North! Haha.

PRO
Canada
#47  

Whoops, I forgot to mention that I really liked the video as well!

You don't really ever see robots in peaceful outdoor settings, taking in their surroundings. It made Dorian seem very zen-like (until he fell down lol) and observant. It was like he was nourishing his robot soul, and I found that to be a very interesting idea.

#48  

@Jeremie Wow thank you for your input! I'm happy you liked it and I did indeed aim to make a different kind of video from what I'm used to.

I hope that by next summer Dorian will be able to experience and interact with that environment a lot more than he did this summer. Other than mistakenly spotting his favorite green ball in the cabin (I didn't bring any of his toys) he was rather lost up there in the wilderness, haha.

PRO
Canada
#49  

I really dig this robot! Looking forward for moar!

#50  

@amin Thank you I'm very happy to hear that! I've been busy with moving to a new town and getting settled here but I finally got back to tinkering just a couple weeks ago so now I'm preparing to post some updates here and on my channel soon. Have a good one!

#51  

Hello everyone, I don't know if anyone on here still remembers me but I used to be somewhat active in this community a while back. I've been away for some time but am now looking to get back into this favorite part of my life, hehe. It seems like a lot has changed and to be honest I do feel a little bit overwhelmed and not entirely sure where to pick up from my old projects. Would love to hear from any and all community members about what's been going on here at Synthiam and if there are any major changes I should be aware of now that I try to return to all this!

#52   — Edited

Quote:

what's been going on here at Synthiam and if there are any major changes I should be aware of
Welcome back! Wow, that's a loaded question. So much has happened and changed that it's almost imposable to know where to start.

Bottom line is that ARC (EZ Builder) is still the best and most advanced platform avaliable. It seems that every week it gets improved and get better and better. One of (but not only) the biggest change is that now ARC can work with and control more interfaces then the EZB. Among them is hardware like some of the more popular Arduino's. Also now you need to pay to use ARC if you have a big project. There is still a free version that is fully functional but limited in how much you can load into it. Look here:

https://synthiam.com/Products/ARC

PRO
Belgium
#53  

hi sebediah

great you are back with dorian .xD

PRO
USA
#54   — Edited

Hey Nomad, no video and all pictures are gone here, where did he go?

PRO
Belgium
#55  

ezang

indeed no video's to see here . maybe sebediah is making new vids.

#56  

So nice to see some familiar faces, I hope you've all been well!  Dave I trust you're still working on that awesome B9 of yours? And hey Patrick! I am working on a new design for a small robot but Dorian will be back in the future, I have big plans for him, hehe.

I noticed the paid pro version of ARC, I'll get that as soon as I have a free day to jump into it. I was just wondering about whether that now requires an active internet connection in order for ARC to know you're licensed? I'm asking because most of my projects have been done on offline laptops and I'm hoping that will continue to be possible?

PRO
Belgium
#57  

sebediah

lookin forwart to dorian back in action .

#58   — Edited

Hello everyone, just wanted to let everyone know that for the last couple of weeks I've been busy getting back to robotics after a fairly long break. It's been a challenge to say the least since the reason I disappeared in the first place were severe complications to my eyesight. Surgeries, injections and a whole lot of laser treatment have calmed down the situation but I am also now quite badly visually impaired. So far I have not run into any problems I can not work around however! And I am beginning to adapt to developing things again in these new circumstances:) With my return I also went ahead and did a bit of a re-brand for the sites where I will be posting my work from now on, and those platforms will go by the new DapperGolem brand that I am very happy with, haha. I've decided to start streaming my work all weekend evenings, so I'm currently streaming at Twitch from the workshop on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays every weekend unless I am otherwise unable to do so. I try to keep a relaxed stream with music, casual conversations about pretty much anything, the occasional cameo from my dog and cat, and of course, a whole lot of robot tinkering.

If anyone is interested in checking them out, I will leave links below for my new Twitch and Youtube channels. Happy robot building guys, I'm so glad to be back!

https://www.twitch.tv/dappergolem https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAzutx2F8wHWbn2cSJnk8HA

PRO
Canada
#59  

Glad to have you back Sebediah! Once I saw your new channel, I subbed right away :D

PRO
Belgium
#60  

Sebediah

good to hear you tackle your problems . fingers crossed .

#61  

Thank you so much @Patrick and @Jeremie! I've subscribed right back at both of you and enjoying seeing what you've been up to.

#62  

Welcome back. Thank god for your recovery. Hopefully things will continue to improve. Keep having fun!!

#63  

Sebediah, Great to see you back.  I think robotics is a helpful therapy, it keeps me busy, and not dwelling on health issues. Lots of fun new things to try with ARC. Steve S

#64  

@Dave Thank you! And yes I do hope it will get better over time, or at the very least not get much worse as I already know I can keep working and having a good time with my current eyesight.

@Steve Thanks! I agree this is an amazing hobby to help take your mind off things and focus on the things that make you happy instead. ARC seems great from what I've seen so far, really looking forward to see what it can do with my new robot soon.