The tale of how we R2D2 "sawed" for the premiere of the new StarWars series
Hello, dear reader!
Today I want to talk about the R2D2 robot, many familiar and causing direct associations with the universe of one of the most famous fantasy sagas - the Star Wars universe.
Since I do not consider myself to be ardent fans of this universe, but I have loved and influenced my interest both to robots in childhood and to space, and science fiction in general, the desire to have a hand to recreate one of the main characters tormented me long. Especially since I have had a direct relationship with cosmic for several years now. True, these are not ships, as in the film, but quite real flying Proton-M missiles.
')
So, the time has come to make an astromech droid, a starship will do later, at leisure.
For those who are not familiar with this robot
or knows little about him
In appearance, the robot seems quite simple - a barrel on wheels. But in reality it was necessary to approach thoroughly, especially since the drawings were made, in fact, from scratch. Yes, I will not dissemble. On the Internet, you can find how to make this or that detail, there are several blog enthusiasts in English, even came across drawings in inches. But the engineers said that they could do it themselves and the drawings were not important to them, they had enough quality pictures.
We tried to accumulate all available information and got down to business.
I collected information, communication with those who have already collected in the United States. And, of course, further interaction with interested people. Alexander and Sergey drew, sawed, printed on a 3D printer and collected to the final state. Daniel was in charge of electronics and software.
We completely abandoned the idea of making aluminum. Expensive and weighty would have. Therefore, we decided to make plywood. But there is still something from metal. And not lost. Now he weighs quite a bit. Initially, they did not plan to fit all of his "tools" into it. Emphasis was placed on the similarity in appearance. Further, if necessary, we will collect version 2 and we will tighten the quality.
I know that they shower with hats. Like, it's not robots, but animatronics. Like this is the 70s. So be it.
In addition, there are many robots in the universe, the choice of who to make next is great .
Only in the R series (and there are 9 of the series) there are several droids.
So what did we use when creating R2D2? There is also nothing special.
The software is written in Kivy for android devices. Speech (phrases) is coded by the programmer using the R2D2 Translator service. He never told us that our robot can respond to those who want to communicate with him. Only evilly smiled.
Of the plans for the future, there are other characters to many famous films, as well as cartoons. Also, their developments in designs and software.
And finally, a little demonstration of an almost finished robot.
There is little time left before the premiere, but there is still a lot to be done. Perhaps one of you will be lucky enough to come to the cinema in Moscow for the first night, get to know him live closer!
Alas, but where and when we will, I can not say - a trade secret.
PS If you notice an error (and I have no doubt that they are enough), please indicate in a personal message.
PPS If I don’t completely kill karma with my article, I’ll tell you about BB-8, Wall-e, Eva and others in the following.
Today I want to talk about the R2D2 robot, many familiar and causing direct associations with the universe of one of the most famous fantasy sagas - the Star Wars universe.
Since I do not consider myself to be ardent fans of this universe, but I have loved and influenced my interest both to robots in childhood and to space, and science fiction in general, the desire to have a hand to recreate one of the main characters tormented me long. Especially since I have had a direct relationship with cosmic for several years now. True, these are not ships, as in the film, but quite real flying Proton-M missiles.
')
So, the time has come to make an astromech droid, a starship will do later, at leisure.
For those who are not familiar with this robot
or knows little about him
Prehistory
About a year ago, when I got the news about the release of a new series from the Star Wars universe - The Awakening of Power , and besides, we were looking for a team, what else to start making a robot. I was asked to reproduce R2D2. As close as possible to the original.
In the living of us, no one has seen either the original or copies of fans from other countries, of which there are many, especially in the United States, and in Russia not one at that time. Only in the film and on video clips. By the way, the chief project engineer did not watch a single series completely. The team accepted the idea skeptical. But after a person was found interested in showing the robot at the Russian premiere, the goal was to make visible contours.
In the living of us, no one has seen either the original or copies of fans from other countries, of which there are many, especially in the United States, and in Russia not one at that time. Only in the film and on video clips. By the way, the chief project engineer did not watch a single series completely. The team accepted the idea skeptical. But after a person was found interested in showing the robot at the Russian premiere, the goal was to make visible contours.
In appearance, the robot seems quite simple - a barrel on wheels. But in reality it was necessary to approach thoroughly, especially since the drawings were made, in fact, from scratch. Yes, I will not dissemble. On the Internet, you can find how to make this or that detail, there are several blog enthusiasts in English, even came across drawings in inches. But the engineers said that they could do it themselves and the drawings were not important to them, they had enough quality pictures.
We tried to accumulate all available information and got down to business.
I collected information, communication with those who have already collected in the United States. And, of course, further interaction with interested people. Alexander and Sergey drew, sawed, printed on a 3D printer and collected to the final state. Daniel was in charge of electronics and software.
We completely abandoned the idea of making aluminum. Expensive and weighty would have. Therefore, we decided to make plywood. But there is still something from metal. And not lost. Now he weighs quite a bit. Initially, they did not plan to fit all of his "tools" into it. Emphasis was placed on the similarity in appearance. Further, if necessary, we will collect version 2 and we will tighten the quality.
I know that they shower with hats. Like, it's not robots, but animatronics. Like this is the 70s. So be it.
Photo 3d build and start work on the hull
3D model (team):
Assembly and collection test:
Painting and detailing:
Revision before stuffing with electronics:
After installing the electronics. Check.
As you can see, the robot is very similar to the one in the movie. Of course, there are many nuances in quality, exact coincidence in details, as well as the absence of internal tools, but this will all be done later. By the premiere of this, we did not have time to do it.
Assembly and collection test:
Painting and detailing:
Revision before stuffing with electronics:
After installing the electronics. Check.
As you can see, the robot is very similar to the one in the movie. Of course, there are many nuances in quality, exact coincidence in details, as well as the absence of internal tools, but this will all be done later. By the premiere of this, we did not have time to do it.
In addition, there are many robots in the universe, the choice of who to make next is great .
Only in the R series (and there are 9 of the series) there are several droids.
So what did we use when creating R2D2? There is also nothing special.
- Raspberry pi
- Arduino mega
- Several motors (2 in the legs, 1 in the cap)
- 3 motor drivers
- RGB Led LEDs 5mm
- Bluetooth module for Arduino
- wires
- Speakers
- APS Batteries
- Microsoft webcam
The software is written in Kivy for android devices. Speech (phrases) is coded by the programmer using the R2D2 Translator service. He never told us that our robot can respond to those who want to communicate with him. Only evilly smiled.
Little about us
We are a team of enthusiasts who make custom robots - Ruscyborg, united by common interests in the field of astronautics and robotics.
Three of us are engineers in one of the space centers of Moscow and directly related to the production of the Proton-M launch vehicle.
For the past 3 years, we have been engaged in ensuring that robotics in Russia is not only interesting, but also necessary, useful. We also participated in the open source project Inmoov and were the first to make legs. But out of the project out. This story is worth a separate publication.
[ Earlier they wrote about us ]
Three of us are engineers in one of the space centers of Moscow and directly related to the production of the Proton-M launch vehicle.
For the past 3 years, we have been engaged in ensuring that robotics in Russia is not only interesting, but also necessary, useful. We also participated in the open source project Inmoov and were the first to make legs. But out of the project out. This story is worth a separate publication.
[ Earlier they wrote about us ]
Of the plans for the future, there are other characters to many famous films, as well as cartoons. Also, their developments in designs and software.
And finally, a little demonstration of an almost finished robot.
There is little time left before the premiere, but there is still a lot to be done. Perhaps one of you will be lucky enough to come to the cinema in Moscow for the first night, get to know him live closer!
Alas, but where and when we will, I can not say - a trade secret.
PS If you notice an error (and I have no doubt that they are enough), please indicate in a personal message.
PPS If I don’t completely kill karma with my article, I’ll tell you about BB-8, Wall-e, Eva and others in the following.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/367279/
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