A true personal robot for development of consumer robotics applications.
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Über dieses Projekt
There are a lot of robots in the world. But most only have the capability to do one thing. Those that can do more cost tens of thousands of dollars.
Jerry is the first personal robot that is affordable as well as capable enough to be used for any number of different tasks and applications.
What does Jerry do? You might as well ask what did the original Apple II do?
Applications
- Education
- Hobby
- AI and Deep Learning Research
- Home Security
- Custom Applications
- Basic Cleaning
- Elderly Care
- Telepresence
- Pick and Place
- Entertainment
- Serving
- Personal Assistant
Design
"The reason it has taken so long for the robotics industry to move forward is because people keep trying to make something that is cool but difficult to achieve rather than trying to find solutions to actual human problems." ~Colin Angle, CEO of iRobot
The Hardware is Expensive
Unlike computers, robots have physical parts that don't follow Moore's Law. And if you have a robot with an arm, then all those motors and gears really start to add to the cost sheet.
Simple Mechanisms Instead of Motors
Jerry has been made affordable by simplifying many of the mechanisms as far as possible while remaining functional. Two motors were never used where one would do. Any other approach is just lazy design. If this had not been the approach then Jerry would have cost tens of thousands of dollars, like all the rest, and not have been any more useful.
Wood
Jerry is made of wood. Every structural and visible piece came from a tree. We essentially put motors in a cabinet.
Look at your house. Is it made of glass? Are there white lights and curved white furniture sitting everywhere? Probably not.
Designed to Look Like Furniture
Jerry is meant to look like a piece of furniture. He makes his statement when people see that he is a robot bringing a soda. When he is just waiting around or sweeping the floor it is better if he is not gaudy.
Wood has also let us keep costs down in manufacturing as well as create a platform that can be easily modified and hacked by adventurous hobbyists that might like to add something to Jerry.
The Arm
Simplified Mechanics
Take a moment to imagine that you don't have a wrist. Add in that your shoulder can't swing your arm sideways. Now try to open a door or grab a soda. You can probably still do it, right. Its a bit awkward but it is by no means impossible.
Many robots have endless points of articulation in an emulation of a human arm. This is nice for a research group or for a person, but is it really necessary?Then there is the matter of cost. A robot with an arm is often very expensive because of the complexity of the parts in the arm.
So Jerry's arm was stripped to its bare essentials. The design maximizes the utility of every moving part of the machine so expensive components could be kept to a minimum.
Retractable
When not in use Jerry's arm is stowed to maintain his neutral exterior and ensure that the arm will not be damaged. It is also just cool to have a robot with a retractable arm.
Driven by Linear Actuators
In order to maximize the weight that Jerry could lift, he uses a cable system driven by linear actuators in his base. This not only eliminates extraneous weight on the arm, but moves it low on Jerry so that it is more difficult for him to fall over.
Large Workspace
Jerry has a large workspace letting him work in human environments. He can reach over counters, into a fridge, and down to the floor.
The Gripper
When you create a robot to be put to use in many different applications, and torn apart by hackers, there is no reason to create a gripper that is supposed to be the "end all be all." It will always be wrong.
3-D Printed
The gripper on Jerry is 3-D printed. Hobbyists and researchers can change the design as needed and have it created quickly. This way a task-specific gripper can be built for any situation.
Removable
To remove the gripper all a person has to do is pull it off and undo the clip to the actuator cable.
The modular design makes switching grippers quick and simple. Its like changing the nozzle on a vacuum cleaner.
Software is easy to upgrade but, in robotics, hardware also needs to be modifiable. The gripper allows Jerry to be customized to varying circumstances as few other robots have ever made possible for the user.
Locomotion
Two-Wheel Differential Drive
Jerry is propelled by two 24V gear motors. No, he does not balance on those two wheels like a Segway. He simply sits on his two drive wheels and casters. Any other method introduces an unnecessary point of failure and complication, with little benefit.
24V Drive Motors and Power Supply
The motors are powered by a rechargable battery pack which can power Jerry for 2-4 hours under continuous operation.
The Eyes
Look in the mirror. How many eyes do you have? Hopefully two. Do you feel your way along with your hands when you walk down a hall. Do you send out a sound and listen to the response to find an object? Do you memorize your house so that you know the exact number of steps to take from one door to another. Not unless you're blind!
Stereo-Vision
There is no reason to make robots blind when they have the capability to see the way what we see. Jerry has two 5 megapixel cameras to attain that goal.
So that those cameras can "look around" they are on an articulated face which enables Jerry to see what he is grasping or about to roll over. The movement of the face also helps with interaction and communication.
The great part about vision is that it gets better with computing. All the information needed to interact with the world is in a picture if you know how to get it. It is not just viable in a particular case, it is universally applicable. Other sensors are dead weight when vision is used correctly.
Other Sensors
Jerry relies primarily on his cameras for perception. But for redundancy, Jerry's arm actuators contain potentiometers in order to read their location, and his drive motors are mounted with magnetic quadrature encoders.
The Brain
Used in Self-Driving Cars
In order to support the amount of data analysis required for a fully vision-based robot we needed a computer that was smarts. The Nvidia Jetson TK1 was chosen to be the main CPU.
The Jetson was designed for use in vision and deep-learning applications. Tesla and Google use them in their self-driving car and deep-learning programs. With a computational rate of up to 326 Gigaflops the Jetson is a beast.
Linux
The Jetson runs a version of Ubuntu and can accept and run software such as ROS and TensorFlow. This makes Jerry an ideal platform for machine learning and artificial intelligence research. And now that research can be done on a robot that will actually be used in the real world by real people.
Expandable Sensor Capacity
The microcontroller that takes the commands from the Jetson is the Arduino Mega. The Mega was far more I/O capabilities than many other open source microcontrollers. This capability again makes Jerry a good hobby or research platform.
For detailed specs visit the webpage.
The Build
See what went into making the Jerry prototype.
The Goal
"Your living room is the final frontier for robots." ~Cynthia Breazeal, CEO of Jibo Inc
Hobby then Home
Jerry is ready to be released as a hobby and development platform. But he is meant for so much more than that. With a personal robot that is truly multiuse the obvious extension is to put him into homes. Jerry has the physical capabilities to operate in a house now. But the software needs to catch up
This campaign is to get Jerrys out into the hands of developers and educators who can begin to give us feedback on the design and capabilities and help us grow the software base.
SDK and App Store
The money from this campaign will allow Slant to build the first run of Jerry's and hire several dedicated developers to create the software infrastructure that is needed to start putting Jerry into homes, including an SDK and App Store.
Jerry is going to become the world's first true personal robot butler.
Rewards
$5 - Honorary Founder
Everyone that contributes $5 or more will be placed on our list of honorary founders displayed proudly on our website.
$15 - 3-D printed Walter Robot
Walter was the result of a long weekend programming and working on Jerry. This little guy basically became a mascot for Slant Robotics even over Jerry. You may have noticed him opening a few of our videos.
Wiedergabe Ton AN
This prize is a 2.5 inch tall 3-D printed version of that mascot.
$25 - "Build the Uprising" T-Shirt
Some people are afraid of technology. We are all the visionaries that embrace it. This T-shirt matches that mentality.
$50 - Pre-order of Jerry Home Robot and T-shirt
Jerry is starting life as a development platform with a lot of applications. But the goal is to put him into homes. He will be the robot butler that everyone has imagined. This reward puts you at the top of the waiting-list to purchase the home version of Jerry, at a reduced price, when it is ready to do your laundry and play with your kids.
To tide you over until then you will also receive a "Build the Uprising" T-Shirt.
$1199 - Headless Jerry
Jerry is going out to developers and hobbyists first. We have given him a tremendous brain. But it is not the only option. Jerry can run on a Raspberry Pi. This prize is the entire body of Jerry minus the main CPU. you can insert your own machine and start programming Jerry your way. All the microcontroller code will be available for your reference and customization.
$1599 - Development Jerry Early Bird
Be the first to get a Jerry at a discount of nearly $1000 dollars. This Jerry is a great development platform and will be able to accept all software that is created for the home version. In the meantime you can enjoy Jerry with the basic functionality that he will come with, or just start adding your own when the SDK is released.
$1799 - Development Jerry
Late to the party. No worries. This reward is a full Jerry with basic functionality that you can begin to hack or teach with. And, of course, it will be ready to receive all of our home software when that portion of the project is complete.
Timeline
Basic prizes like T-shirts and Walter's will be delivered within a month of the campaign ending.
The headless Jerry will be shipping much sooner than the other versions since it will not be reliant on any software.
The Jerry's with the basic beta OS in place and ready for development will be ready in January. From there we will be working with folks to make final tweaks to the SDK which will be released so that people can easily build their own apps.
The home version will have the OS fully completed with several tasks pre-programmed, such as clearing a room of random items and monitoring the house. Backers on the waiting list will have first dibs to purchase these units as a reduced price.
When the App Store is completed customers will be able to upgrade their software and download new abilities.
Who
Gabe Bentz - Founder of Slant
I've been building robots since I could walk. My first machine was a cardboard box with motors from tape players.
Before Jerry I had worked as a consultant, freelance engineer, and product designer for several years while going to school. I took one year off to grow that business which I had started it in my dorm room.
I have worked on projects ranging from tour guide robots to spherical robots, and everything learned in those projects is going into Jerry.
Jerry has been built at the Idaho SBDC Business Accelerator, in Nampa Idaho. The facility is an incubator for small businesses. Its team is dedicated to the success of the companies here. I have been working with the SBDC Accelerator for several months and they have been instrumental in getting Jerry to this point and they can help Slant to take him even further.
Risiken und Herausforderungen
Slant is working to create a physical product. With that comes all the challenges of manufacturing. But already Slant has the partners and equipment in place to deliver these first version robots.
The design of Jerry has been finalized. The prototype has exposed all the errors. These are now corrected and the design ready for the assembly line.
Slant is located in Nampa, ID which has many shops in the area. We have already made the connections with these manufacturers to create the pieces for Jerry.
Any piece that can't be manufactured locally has already been sourced from multiple locations so that we will get the parts that we need when we need them.
Final assembly and delivery will take place from the Slant office which is located within the Boise State TECenter. This incubator not only provides all the space required but also the help and resources needed to ensure the product is delivered.
Hiring is also a challenge. Currently Gabe Bentz heads the project with help from freelancers and friends. This campaign will allow the hire of more people to work on Jerry, particularly in software development. The challenge is finding the correct people. But that has already been done. Several developers and friends have been selected who would be able to help bring Jerry to fruition. They will be hired at the successful conclusion of this campaign.
But none of this can happen without your help. Please share or contribute to this campaign and help us to bring a true personal robot into the home.
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Finanzierungszeitraum
- (35 Tage)