Robot humanoids are cool, but also a bit hard to make work as they only have two legs to stand on. Four-legged robots can be a bit more approachable. The Dingo Quadruped aims to be just such an open-source platform for teaching and experimentation purposes.
The robot is based on the Stanford Pupper, a robot platform we’ve discussed previously. It bears a design not dissimilar from the popular Spot robot from Boston Dynamics. Where Spot costs tens of thousands of dollars, though, Dingo is far cheaper, intended for cheap production by students and researchers for less than $1,500.
The robot weighs around 3 kg, and is approximately the size of a shoebox. Control over the robot is via a wireless game controller. Each leg uses three high-torque servo motors, which are elegantly placed to reduce the inertia of the leg itself. A Raspberry Pi runs the show, with an Arduino Nano also onboard for interfacing analog sensors or additional hardware. The chassis itself has a highly modular design, with a focus on making it easy to add additional hardware.
If you want to get started experimenting with quadruped robots, the Dingo might just be the perfect platform for you. Video after the break.
I see a lot of rigid bipeds talking, but not much quadruped action … will it walk or will it blend ?
I had a look at the files – they’re pretty thorough, the BOM is excellent and thorough.
SOLIDWORKS files need to be opened at work. I wonder if there are opportunities for springs or rubber bands to reduce the continuous draw on the servos. I understand that heat is an issue in this build, to the point where they suggest avoiding PLA near the servos
It needs an LED scanner up front, like K.I.T.T. or a Cylon.
As a licensed curmudgeon, I would just like to point out that this, as wonderful as it is (especially for the price!), is a remotely-controlled vehicle and not a robot. A robot is autonomous. A dishwasher is a robot, a Dingo is not.
Though it appears you just tell it where to go and not have to sort out how to move each leg which is what it has a Pi for, so robotised maybe. Like a manumatic transmission.
But presumably you could run ROS on it?
It uses ROS.
Something that seems to be missing from the design’s I’ve seen is energy optimization. Things like using the inherent overcenters in the legs for an “energy neutral” still standing pose, or springs (with curve disks or similar) to reduce the static motor load. Note that this is very common for industrial articulated robot arms.
The guy on the video said Spot (released in 2016) was the first commercially available robot dog, I bet he doesn’t know about Sony Aibo (released in 1999).