MORAV - Mech Sci-Fi

[Tyberius]

I'm sure a lot of you have already heard about Fon Davis (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0204603/) and his project MORAV (http://morav.net/) but for those of you who haven't, you should definitely check this out.

Here is his Gen 1 MORAV mech design:

http://morav.net/images/behindthescenes/Gen1.jpg
Gen 3:

http://morav.net/images/robots/RIM00030.jpg
Keep in mind these are working animatronic robots, here's some video of how they're controlling them.

YouTube - MORAV robot test 1 of 2
YouTube - MORAV Robot test 2 of 2

Pretty awesome stuff. I've talked with Fon about Mech Wars and he thinks the competition is awesome, we might even have a cameo appearance of the MORAV mechs at Robogames 2009 :)

[4mem8]

Oh man that is so great, Thanks Tyberius for those vids, what a goal to work to, Although they probably have unlimited resources for there work. But real nice to see it in action. Are they using the AX-12 117 servos?

[Tyberius]

Think they're using HSR-5990s. And actually this project is done in Fon's personal studio, so they certainly don't have unlimited resources, just lots of know-how.

[ScuD]

I don't know Fon, but he has the job of my dreams.

Those things are amazing, and my #1 reason to go all out on armour and aesthetics.

That and the fact my bot 'll prolly never see combat :mad:

[4mem8]

Man, he funds his own workshop, real cool.

[A-Bot]

That and the fact my bot 'll prolly never see combat :mad:

Why do you say that? :robotsurprised:

[ScuD]

I'm from Belgium. Little far to come over for the weekend, and I'm quite sure I'm not gonna get someone back here to compete.

But we'll see.. maybe if I can get a kick-ass mech put together I'll check to see if it's not too expensive to come over.

[darkback2]

why make one when you can make two for twice as much. Just make two, and then you can start the fighting all on your own. Why do you think I have two isobots...(Ok...so they are a little on the cheap side, but they are fun...funny)

How close are you to Antwerp? Is there a robotics community in Europe?

DB

[ScuD]

Well, given the distances you guys are used to in America, Antwerp is right next door :happy:

I'm just east of the center of Belgium, Leuven to be precise (or Louvain, as it's pronounced in english/french)

Robotics communities in Belgium are rare, there is one in which some guys are working on a robot vision program, but otherwise it's mostly converted RC cars and line-following.

Don't get me wrong, i'm all for any kind of robotics, but i'd much prefer a robot club with people building bipeds / quads / hexes.

In any case, a buddy of mine is gonna start working on a website I'd have some input on, and we're hoping to get in touch with some more roboticists in the neighbourhood.

[sam]

Wow! Those things are awesome!

It would be fun to compete against yourself (espacialy if you want to advance a automous mech, that's how you train it :wink: ). I don't want to discurage, but I think you are going to find it boring not long after (at least I would). It depends what you want. You want to go to a competition for a week-end (you could probably stay there a week, go to LA after, take a week off) and find hundreds (if not thousands) of robotics enthousiats... I would love to go too. For 800$ thought I could do a lot of other things. :sad:

[ScuD]

Exactly, that's my point Sam.

I'm a young guy, still live at home, saving up to buy a house, unfortunately back here the markets haven't crashed and they're massively expensive... (think 300k$ for a tiny house in dire need of renovation..)

But who knows, maybe I'll get a tax refund in time for the robogames, and I can convince the GF to tag along.

[4mem8]

*Sigh* I might have to compete against myself as the distance to the U.S is so far. Make my own arena and two autonomous bots.

[MYKL]

Awesome.

The 'waldo' type control system is exactly what I'd like to use on my projects, at least for the upper body. I believe it is what 'King Kaiser' uses to maneuver their entries. Do you know what they used for telemetry and control Tyberius? As far as hardware is concerned? I think people would love to watch a couple of mechs with this much attention to detail incorporated into the design. The armour adds weight but it also adds believe ablity and strength to the design.

[Tyberius]

It's a fully custom designed telemetry suit. Fon said it was just made from random aluminum and potentiometers read by a micro, and relayed through a PC.

[MYKL]

Do you have suggestions, or is it even possable for me to control my RN-1 real-time like this with pots using my PC and the control board(s) that are OEM with the RN-1?

[Tyberius]

Do you have suggestions, or is it even possable for me to control my RN-1 real-time like this with pots using my PC and the control board(s) that are OEM with the RN-1?


I don't know enough about the RN-1 control board to give you an accurate answer on that. It's certainly feasible with an SSC-32 though. I've looked into implementing this same control scheme for the upper torso of my J5.... lower torso on a humanoid would be painfully difficult and not worth it though imo, legs just don't match up.

If you know a bit of programming, concept is simple. Potentiometers are read by a micro with a good amount of analog inputs, input is translated to relative servo movements on the robot.

I was planning on using a basic stamp with some A/D converters, have it send the input via serial bluetooth to my robot's pico ITX, write an interface program in C# that runs locally on the pico itx board which in turn controls the SSC-32. Simple in concept, never got to the point of attempting implementation though.

[JonHylands]

I've done this more or less with BrainBot, using a second Bioloid model.

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[sam]

I've done this more or less with BrainBot, using a second Bioloid model.


Wow! That's pretty nice and I bet it's that all that complex to do (just need a lot of time :veryhappy:)

[ScuD]

Ha! Love the "voodoo" name :veryhappy:

Great work there Jon! Is it just for 'puppeteering' purposes or do you use it to program motion sequences?

[JonHylands]

The voodoo setup is actually for making demo videos, to show off the capabilities of the robot.

[4mem8]

JonHylands: great video, Love it. If only my J5 could do that. very nice.

[tom_chang79]

I love the Gen 3... The palm is just trick!

[MYKL]

Your set up is very inspiring. Can you control the focus on the lenses with that unit also?

I'd like to set up a hexapod with something like that with the tips of the controlling 'dummy' legs attached to two tripod/control sticks so that you would directly control alternating leg groups in a manually directed tripod gait.

After my biped is done...

^_^

[JonHylands]

Your set up is very inspiring. Can you control the focus on the lenses with that unit also?

Yes, those cameras include manual zoom and focus adjustments.