It’s always great fun to build your own robot. Sometimes, though, if you’re doing various projects or research, it’s easier to buy an existing robot and then use it to get down to business. That was very much the role of the Willow Garage PR2, but unfortunately, it’s no longer in production. However, as covered by The Robot Report, the design files have now been released for others to use.
The PR2 was built as an advanced platform with wide-ranging capabilities. It was able to manipulate objects with its 7-degrees-of-freedom end effectors, as well as visualize the real world with a variety of complex sensor packages. Researchers put it to work on a variety of tasks, from playing pool to fetching beers and even folding laundry. The latter one is still considered an unsolved problem that challenges even the best robots.
Rights to the PR2 robot landed in the hands of Clearpath Robotics, after Willow Garage was shut down in 2014. Clearpath is now providing access to the robot’s design files on its website. This includes everything from wiring diagrams and schematics, to assembly drawings, cable specs, and other background details. You’ll have to provide some personal information to get access, but the documentation you desire is all there.
We actually got our first look at the PR2 robot many years ago, way back in 2009. If you decide to build your own from scratch, be sure to hit us up on the tipsline.
Any idea whether the files released actually give low level internal details (like internal designs of the motors powering the arms) or whether the robot was originally designed simply as a collection of comercially produced ausbsyetms and therefore details are morelike “put an arm unit from XYZ corp here, used an ABC type motor as the front left wheel with a preprogrammed PLC from PLC ltd running existing proprietary feedback loop software DEF”.
ausbsyetms = subsystems?
I needed google to unscramble this very pretty jumble of letters. To me it looked like the name of some tropical plant. One with magnificient multicolored flowers, a heavy stink and a deadly poison.
Am I the only one landing on a “Ready to get started page” without any form to enter anything?
Answering my own question after trying multiple browsers/machines.
You need to disable any ad blocker in order to be able to enter your info in a form that is served by gomarketing.ottomotors.com… interesting, I’m wondering how my info is going to be used and to whom it’s going to be sold…
I don’t wonder. I just use a 10 minute e-mail like https://10minutemail.com/ for stuff like that.
Hi, thank you for your interest in downloading the PR2 files. To clarify, Clearpath Robotics is using forms to collect information solely to gauge people’s interest in PR2 resources. We use this information to better serve our customers and the robotics community. We do not intend to use or sell this information for any other purpose. As OTTO motors is part of our company, we also share some servers and resources with them.
For anyone not willing to fill out the form, behind the gate are download links to four zip files:
PR2 Cable Drawings (27 MB) – PDFs
PR2 Electrical Manufacturing Files (113 MB) – PDF + XLS BOM + ODB for each board plus some older revision info for some boards
PR2 Schematics (34 MB) – PDFs
PR2 CAD Files (11220 MB — large!) – DXF/IGS/PDF diagrams of each part/assembly with STEP, and STL assets for machined bits. BOMs are on the top level assembly diagram PDFs. Once again there’s a lot of historical information in here. Earlier revisions and prototypes. Really neat of them to show not just a final snapshot but how they got there.
Not a release to allow for click-and-send turnkey clones but still an amazing resource for those interested in capable robotic systems. While Willow Garage was abysmal at forming a steady revenue stream, their work on maturing ROS into what it is today and churning out impressive demos will never be forgotten.
So i went to the website viaom the forr the link in the article. filled out the offered form then realized there is no way to enter the data from the form, no enter, next or continue buttons at the end of said form, what gives?
Sad that we never got a PR3, but now it might still happen :)