
Boston Dynamics' Handle Robot Recreated with Raspberry Pi - blindm
https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/boston-dynamics-handle-robot-recreated-with-raspberry-pi/
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fermienrico
It would be nice if they showed what the end result would be like. One of the
most frustrating things about the maker crowd is that every tutorial ends up
painfully explaining breadboard connections - they're not addressing "how to
fish" \- just show the schematic and teach new comers how to read the
schematic and make their own connections on the breadboard. 90% of the
tutorials spend painful time showing "connect this pin over here in this
breadboard hole". It's like teaching someone how to draw by saying "Draw this
line here at 35 degree angle with this amount of pressure and length." The
entire video here [1] is just looking at someone put wires together but
doesn't show the final product in a satisfactory way. Everyone's breadboard
will be unique - you can't follow step by step connections on a breadboard.
You can however, just look at the schematic and hook up stuff on your own once
you know how 1) breadboard works 2) how to read schematics. Both of these can
be offloaded and referred elsewhere and the time spent in the tutorial should
be about architecture, explaining the schematic, _why_ is it designed that
way, advantages and disadvantages, etc. /rant

[1] [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DS-QJv-
ae3s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DS-QJv-ae3s)

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sacred_numbers
This blog post is focused on the Raspberry Pi portion of the build, since it
is the Raspberry Pi blog, but it links to the original creator's blog, which
is more detailed and has several videos of the robot actually working. Here's
a link to the original blog: [https://raspibotics.wixsite.com/pibotics-
blog/post/02-how-to...](https://raspibotics.wixsite.com/pibotics-
blog/post/02-how-to-build-a-self-balancing-robot-with-legs-boston-dynamics-
inspired-it-balances)

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alexwatson405
Nice write-up! Getting servos and gears strong enough to jump will be a
challenge, but looking forward to seeing what you come up with! I had a
project to create a SpotMini from a Mekamon last year- biggest problem I ran
into was that the servos could not support the weight of an iPhone-
[https://medium.com/@zredlined/making-my-own-spot-
mini-2-2f12...](https://medium.com/@zredlined/making-my-own-spot-
mini-2-2f1276bb86d5)

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Copenjin
Also this one: [https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/mini-raspberry-pi-boston-
dy...](https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/mini-raspberry-pi-boston-dynamics-
inspired-robot/)

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jagged-chisel
Included video is unsatisfying to me. Here it is actually working:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3tlRV2jX6AY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3tlRV2jX6AY)

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itronitron
For anyone without access to a 3D printer, it's worth noting you can go a long
way with gluing (laminating) thin strips of wood and even paper into layers in
order to create the shapes and structure you want.

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amelius
Looks similar to a Segway.

The downside of this design is that it has to move in order to stabilize. This
means that you can't stabilize near the edge of a cliff.

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joshuas
Who would get close to the edge of a cliff while on a Segway?

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wil421
Funny you should ask. The owner of Segway fell off a cliff and died. So at
least one person.[1]

[1] [https://www.cbsnews.com/news/segways-owner-killed-after-
ridi...](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/segways-owner-killed-after-riding-
scooter-off-cliff/)

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mrfusion
What about the idea of using a cheap hoverboard as a robot platform? Is there
a good way to control it without having to lean forward/backward?

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adamhearn
Not a bad idea. But I think the issue would be durability and quality of the
Chinese parr’s.

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suyash
his little brother

