Have you ever wanted to build a robot arm, or even a full robot, but were put off by the daunting task of making all of those articulations work? Moti could make that a lot easier. The project seeks to produce smart servo motors which can connect and communicate in many different ways. It’s a great idea, so we wanted to know more about the hacker behind the project. After the jump you’ll find [nsted’s] answers to our slate of question for this week’s Hacker Bio.
Settlers of Catan (replaced Chess), Trading Stocks, Jogging (new).
I wear a few different hats including teaching, making art projects, building technologies, and running a business.
Building robots, especially modular robots that interact through touch…(eg. Grapple)
A specific variable power supply I once knew. Crossing over 7.5 Volts triggered a 40+ Volt spike causing mayhem, confusion and self-doubt for many a day.
OSX – it’s easy and works well.
Weller Soldering Iron – It’s always there for me, like an old friend.
ATmega328p – I like its ubiquity…but I hear ARM calling.
Arduino & C++ – I know many (including HaD) are down on Arduino, but it’s saved me a lot of time over the years.
- Moti
- Interchangeable 3D printable robot body parts
- A robot that can safely and competently wrestle a person
Empathy
Where are the robots already?! I thought by 2014 we’d be surrounded by them. We’re working on Moti to help people build more robots, faster. Moti is a kind of standardized robotic module for actuation, sensing, communication and basic computing. It’s meant to take care of the low level tasks so you can focus on the interesting parts of robot design such as bodies, behaviours and applications.
I thought Moti would work well for the Hackaday prize because it’s “connected” in a number of ways. You can control them from browsers, mobile apps, and through various APIs. And you can physically connect them to things…like 3D prints. I also wanted to expose Moti to people, get some feedback, and find future beta-testers.
Yes, PID…and control theory in general, but probably not for a few weeks yet.
Nope
Likes awesome work, will travel.
I hope that we get some feedback from the judges. And thanks!
Loving this idea – get hackers (who often avoid the limelight) some recognition. Props to nsted for coming out of the closet about arduino/ATMega328p :P I too find them so convenient when something has to be done in a hurry, plus it makes your projects accessible to less experienced people.
Cool but isn’t this just a dynamixel?
Hopefully a lot cheaper. Would be nice to have someone compete with dynamixel.
I like this idea – it’s a farsighted problem. Yes it’s a dynamixel, but it’s far more open. Best wishes!
I’m also happy to help out with control theory (my field) – paul.pounds@gmail.com
Amazing project. As I said in the .io page, I will definitely buy a bunch when they’re available. I’ll show this to people I know who work in robotics, it has the potential to be better than dinamixel, if you make some metal gear, high quality servos “motified”.