3D Printed Robot Dog Climbs Over Obstacles

It’s the next part in the series for openDog Version 3. This whole project is open source, and the CAD and code are already published on Github. All of the mechanical parts are designed to be printed in PLA, and the main motor drives, of which there are twelve, are cycloidal drives which I developed over a few videos last year, each drive has two cycloidal discs and a lot of bearings.
There are three videos in my channel about building the project already which you can check out, but in this video, I’m going to make some minor mechanical changes, and attempt to make it walk more dynamically.
The main mechanical change I’m making is to the lower legs. I talked about the inverse kinematics in part 3 of the series.
This involves being able to position the foot in XYZ cartesian coordinates, and work back the maths to calculate each of the three resulting joint angles per leg to achieve the required foot position. To move the foot on a path we interpolate between the positions from point A to point B which means we basically scroll through all the positions on the way, so the foot moves in a straight line.
At the moment, the dog is walking by moving the feet to fixed positions on hard coded timers. The time it has to take a step gets longer as the step distance increases, but it has no sense of balance.

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Huge thanks to my Patrons, without whom my standard of living would drastically decline. Like, inside out-Farm Foods bag decline. Plus a very special shoutout to Lulzbot, Inc who keep me in LulzBot 3D printers and support me via Patreon.

HARDWARE/SOFTWARE

Below you can also find a lot of the typical tools, equipment and supplies used in my projects:

XROBOTS

Former toy designer, current YouTube maker and general robotics, electrical and mechanical engineer, I’m a fan of doing it yourself and innovation by trial and error. My channel is where I share some of my useful and not-so-useful inventions, designs and maker advice. Iron Man is my go-to cosplay, and 3D printing can solve most issues - broken bolts, missing parts, world hunger, you name it.

XRobots is the community around my content where you can get in touch, share tips and advice, and more build FAQs, schematics and designs are also available.

[Haza]

Man this guy is a super talented engineer.

[LucGendrot]

A bit disappointed to hear that there won't be an open dog v4, but still eager for your projects every week!

[benchatfield]

OpenDog has come so far and it’s definitely been one of my favorite projects to watch on YouTube

[sebula]

James's project is fully open source but the only one who can fully assemble it is him. Well done!!!

[MrDoggss]

When real dogs walk, they use a 4 step sequence. Have you ever considered using a modified 4 step sequence vs. the 2x2 ? As fast as your joints move, it seems like you could reduce the tipping, or swaying, by only having 1 leg off the ground at a time. The modifications you made in this episode are amazing! Such a huge difference!

[_Gecko]

Yes, this is what I needed at 1:00 AM, it’s not like I have a paper to write

[KrAvEKaRnAgE]

OpenDog is such a good project. Awesome work James, keep killing it!

[newburypi]

13:33 "I don't really want to..." Glad to hear you haven't put an end to the evolution of Robot Dog. Many thanks for the inspiration. 😃👍

[EnsignLovell]

This reminds me so much of the Boston Dynamics dog, definitely up there in my top 10 favourite projects you've done. I hope he's a good boy and gets lots of hugs.

I feel like this sets a really good foundation for a AI robot dog, with the addition of some cheap sensors and cameras, you could do object recognition, avoidance, you could potentially even make it jump over obstacles if tuned properly (however dimensions may need changed a bit for that). Honestly, I would definitely get into this project myself if I had the time or knowledge.

[DSlyde]

Re-watching this 8 months later I'm still sad that there won't be a version 4. I loved watching the project develop and I think there is further development that could be done, but I also get that it could get stale

[literate-aside]

This is so, so incredible. The most impressive 3d printed project I've ever seen.

[JCUDOS]

My girlfriend walked by and asked "Why is that robot walking on magic wand tips?"
I said "for friction" without thinking and we both laughed. 😂

[charlestaylor]

I don't know if you did it on purpose but, it was cool the way it managed to step to the beat of the music. I've never really heard somebody explain with such great detail, every movement takes a lot thought. Thank you.

[terrysouthwood]

Remarkable and inspirational. The work you have done on your projects, has pushed the boundaries of what most people thought, could be done with 3-d plastic printing and off the shelf electronic modules. Your thoroughness in creating proof of concept and prototype models is exemplary.

[metaphysicalArtist]

People are amazed by James's engineering skills and consider him a super talented engineer. They praise his open-source project, OpenDog, and express how much they enjoy watching its progress on YouTube. Some suggest improvements, such as using a modified 4-step sequence for walking and incorporating machine learning for enhanced capabilities. They appreciate James's work in pushing the boundaries of 3D printing and off-the-shelf electronics, finding his projects remarkable and inspirational. Many express their excitement and admiration for his continuous improvements and impressive designs. Some mention the resemblance to Boston Dynamics' dog and express their desire to see further development. Overall, they find James's work incredible and commend his dedication and skills. That said comes the BUT! We are All waiting for a OpenDog Version IV

[vistuurco]

Been following the project since the beginning, I can't imagine how satisfactory this must be looking back. Amazing

[TheLomsor]

I would really like to see a project where instead of classical tuning and control, Machine Learning would be employed.
With most of your projects being described in a full 3D model, existing ML Models could be adjusted and trained on virtual simulations of a robot and then used in real life!

[lesumsi]

This is incredible! The performance on natural surfaces looks really close to commercial robots! Congrats!

[theotherhive]

this is absolutely phenomenal your work is incredibly impressive and the fact it's all open source is truly amazing

[jpsimon]

This really highlights just what an engineering marvel the human body is. Even leaving out organ function, just the kinematics alone are pretty awe inspiring