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My take on a SpotMicro with an optimized design for supportfree 3D-printing. It utilizes an ESP32-DevKitC for the low-level control of the electronics. The heavy computation will be made by external devices, which in return have the power to command the robot.

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michaelkubina/SpotMicroESP32

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SpotMicroESP32

My take on a SpotMicro with an optimized design for supportfree 3D-printing and integration of an ESP32-DevKitC. This is still a Work-in-Progress!

You can find the 3D-printing parts on Thingiverse as well: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4559827/files

  • Join the Discord-Channel for this remix: https://discord.gg/s8F6xHGk9Y (#spotmicro-esp32)
  • Join the Slack-Channel for this remix - discuss any topics regarding this design: spotmicroai.slack.com (#spotmicro-esp32) Due to no active subscription there is no possibility to browse through older posts. This is why a lot of people moved to the discord channel.

This Project currently lacks the whole programming/software part. Luckily Maarten Weyn already made the inverse kinematics work and wrote also an Smartphone App for simple Control of this Robot via BLE. I advice to take a look into his Repository as well, as this currently my preferred codebase: https://github.com/maartenweyn/SpotMicro_ESP32

An walking gait implementation and voice-commanding was achieved by Guna R. from the slacks #spotmicro-esp32 channel, whis is build upon Maartens software (see Repo above). You definitly have to take a look there as well - but it seems the repo is incomplete and missing the app: https://github.com/cholan2100/ceasar

Look also at the GitLab pages for the general SpomicroAI community, where you can find different models and resources: https://gitlab.com/custom_robots/spotmicroai

SpotMicroESP32

Note of thanks

I want to thank Deok-yeon Kim (KDY0523) for his beautyful and well thought out design of the SpotMicro, without whom my derivate would not have been possible. You can find his original Design here on Thingiverse: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3445283

Him sharing the files with an open licence, made it possible to let it grow a community around it. This is why i want to reference to them as well - the SpotMicroAI Community: https://spotmicroai.readthedocs.io/en/latest/

Preface

This is a work-in-progress, with rather loose milestones.

For 2020 there are two goals:

  • to redesign the original parts, so that they could be printed without any support (done)
  • to make a circuitry for all sensors and parts, that possibly would fit and be considered necessary (done)

For 2021 there are two main goals and one optional goal:

  • to write my own firmware with the ESP-IDF, that integrates/utilizes all sensors and modules except the ESP-CAM which needs its own firmware (in progress)
  • to write a smartphone App in Flutter, that connects to the firmware and reads from/writes to the robot (in progress)
  • to implement the inverse kinematics (optional goal)

This repository is currently just my hobby and as such, it will have its own pace. This being said, i am still happy about any questions, collaborations, suggestions, ideas, forks and what else comes to your mind. I want you to participate, because i think there are a lot of things, that you could dig into.

Sections

Bill of Material

The following Section will describe in detail the different parts needed for your own SpotMicroESP32 build, with at least some rough estimate of the price.

3D-Printing

To build your own SpotMicroESP32 you will need to print a lot parts. For an overview of the 3D printed parts needed, please visit the 3D-printed Partlist. It might be necessary to remix some of the templates to suit your needs, when chosing other electronic components than those listet here.

Electronics

The SpotMicroESP32 ist still a Work-in-Progress and as such the BOM might change as well - check the "deprecated" section for changes. There are still some parts missing and some others are not tested yet - those status will be marked as such. I will give a rough price estimate, which may or may not work for you and might be out of date at some point.

part or module number short description status estimated price
ESP32-DevKitC 1x the core MCU for the build with WIFI + BLE capabilities. tested 7€
ESP32-CAM 1x Tested with the ESP32-Module with OV2640 Camera (version 2). There are also cameras with a version 1 OV2640, where the sensor is in landscape orientation and not in portrait. Also the flexcable seems to be some millimeters shorter than the one from Version 2. You can distinguish them by the imprint on the flexcable, stating TY-OV2640-V2.0. Both OV2640 Cameras should work in theory, as the part is designed to fit both models. Definetly dont go with the one with an fisheye-lens or other variations - the field of view would be hindered and most likely the lens would not fit through the hole anyway. tested 10€
FT232RL USB-TTL-Adapter 1x USB-to-Serial Adapter for ESP32-CAM flashing tested 2€
(MG996R Servo) 12x The bare minimum... but with flaws like jittering and much play... 10Kg servos with metal gears and ball bearings. With these the robot is capable to stand up/change his pose but they are most likely too weak for smooth and reliable walking. (Update 2020-11-19: It can be affirmed, that walking is possible not great, but also not horrible) Go with these only if you can accept these limitations and if more expensive servos would mean not to try this project in the first place. tested 5€ each
better go with DS3218MG Servo up to 12x 20Kg servos with metal gears and ball bearings. Much less play and in my tests no jittering, but also very strong. With these your robot should be able to walk significantly better. Maybe only 4 of these are enough, when used in the lower legs - the most stressed parts. Maybe you would need also 4 additional ones for the upper legs - but maybe MG996R are enough here. The shoulders should be comfortable with MG996R, as these dont do much heavy work. partially tested 15€-20€ each
FSH6S Servohorn 12x servohorn used for this build (should be already shipped with your servos) otherwie use model from 3D parts tested n.n.
Rubber Dampeners for your Servos 48x servo rubber dampeners, so you could use M3 screws (should be already shipped with your servos) tested n.n.
Servocable Extension 4x extending the servocables of the lower legs about 10cm to 15cm tested 10€
625ZZ Ball Bearing 8x miniature ball bearing without a flange tested 1€ each
WS2812b 12 LED Ring (50mm outer diameter) 1x Neopixel-Clone-Ring with an outer diameter of 50mm used to signal status/mood tested 6€
0.96" OLED I2C Display 1x small OLED screen with SSD1306 IC for status informations tested 4€
HC-SR04 Ultrasonic Sensor 2x ultrasonic sensor module for distance measuring tested 3€ each
GY-521 Gyroscope and Accelerometer 1x a module to measure accelaration and spatial orientation, which can be extented with magnetometers tested 3€
PCA9685 16Channel 12Bit PWM Board 1x PWM driver board used for your servos and LEDs, which can power your parts from an external source tested 5€
HW-482 / KY-019 5V 10A Relais 1x relais module to cut the power to your servos completely tested 3€
19mm Push Button with LED 1x illuminated latching pushbutton tested 10€
Micro-USB to DIP Adapter 2x USB-Ports used for extending the USB-Ports of the ESP32 DevKitC and ESP32-CAM (TTL-Adapter) tested 2€
XL4016 DC-DC 9A Stepdown Converter 1x big step-down converter to lower your LiPo 2S voltage to 6,5V (minimum for MG996R) tested 8€
or SZBK07 DC-DC 20A Stepdown Converter 1x even bigger step-down converter to lower your LiPo 2S voltage to 6,5V (minimum for DS3218) tested 12€
LM2596 DC-DC or similar Stepdown Module 1x small step-down converter to lower your LiPo 2S voltage 5V for ESP32's VIN and Modules tested 2€ each
ACS712 30A current sensor module 1x current sensor module capable of max. 30A for e.g. emergency shutdown tested 2€
25V voltage sensor module 1x simple voltage divider module for up to 25V used as a voltage sensor to determin battery charge tested 2€
5200mAh - 6200mAh LiPo 30C+ 2S Tamiya/XH 1x beefy LiPo as your main power source (this is actually your individual choice) tested 40€

Depecrated

The Camera-Unit in the head will be replaced by an ESP32-CAM, because its reasonably cheap (~10€) and opens up a lot of new possibilities like object-recognition, because of additional processing-power.

part or module number short description status estimated price
OV7670 VGA-Camera Module w/o FIFO 1x VGA-Camera without framebuffer IC, used with lower resolution due to memory restrictions (replaced by ESP32-CAM) tested 3€
5mm ~3V LEDs (White) 6x LEDs used as your camera-lights (replaced by ESP32-CAM internal flashlight) tested 1€
5mm ~3V RGB-LEDs 2x RGB-LEDs used as an underglow, might signal status or mood (replaced by Neopixel-Generica) tested 1€
1,77" TFT with ST7735 w/o SD 1x small TFT screen with ST7735 IC for status informations (replaced by 1.8" TFT with SD-Card) tested 7€
optional WS2812B Pixelboard 4x Neopixel-Clones (SMD LED's on small round PCB) used as an underglow, might signal status or mood (removed, as the result is underwealming tested 1€
1,8" TFT with ST7735 with SD 1x small TFT screen with ST7735 IC for status informations (replaced by 0.96" OLED I2C Display) tested 7€

Miscellaneous

part or module number short description status estimated price
M2x8 cylinderhead screws + M2 nuts 84x each screws + nuts to mount your servohorns (you could glue the servohorns in place instead and save yourself 72x M2x8 screws and nuts, but i have not tested it), also used to mount the 1,77" TFT and the pins for the ball bearings tested 8€
M3x8 cylinderhead screws + M3 nuts 80x each screws + nuts for the whole assembly (i hope i have not forgotten some, better buy in bulk as these are usefull for other projects as well) tested 8€
M3x20 cylinderhead screws + M3 nuts 64x each screws + nuts to mount your servos and assemble the upper legs tested 12€
lots of cables and connectors and stuff it's up to you which cables or wires and connectors you want to use, or if you would like to solder everything into place, and if you use heat shrinks, fabric hoses up to you 20€
PLA + TPU (?) you will need about 1Kg of PLA + some grams of TPU (eg. my Black/White design: 500g for the covers + upper legs, 500g for the chassis + lower legs + shoulder joints, some small grams for the grey sensorplate in the head) + some grams of TPU for the foottips tested 30€+

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My take on a SpotMicro with an optimized design for supportfree 3D-printing. It utilizes an ESP32-DevKitC for the low-level control of the electronics. The heavy computation will be made by external devices, which in return have the power to command the robot.

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