Hello from New Mexico, NR01-FF (Grabby)

[Michael Neal]

Thanks for having me in the club! My name is Michael Neal, and I've been building NR-01FF since June as an experiment. 

FF (Flashlight Face) started as "can I build a remote controlled rover with a camera feed?" Then it was "can I put the camera in a swiveling head" and then I found the OmArm, and decided to integrate it. 

At the start of this, I only intended to make a remote controlled rover, but then it evolved into the goal of handing over all controls to AI, and experimenting with embodied AI. I plan to use Qwen. 

NR-01FF consists of an ESP32-S3 devboard, which controls it's four wheel motors, two servos in the neck, the 6DOF arm, the flashlight on his face, the light pipe in his face, and he has an IMU, two INA260s that monitor the arm: one for the whole rail, and then a second one on the gripper itself to give it a sense of touch, and then he's got a simple battery monitor... The ESP was originally all I was going to use; but when I discovered that an OV3660 can't function on a long ribbon, I decided to bring in a Raspberry Pi, so that I could use the native camera module 3 wide for vision - still waiting for the camera module. Eventually, he's getting a MEMS array, and a speaker so he can talk with us, and I'm converting his power from 3S LiPO to 4S Li-Ion, and providing him with a charging dock so he can self charge. (Really lucked out to find a brand new Eufy Robovac for $15 at goodwill, which donated it's healthy battery, and charging dock/charging pads to get integrated) 

He's very much a work in progress, and might never be fully "complete"; but I do intend to ultimately design/print a shell for his body and head- so you can't see his guts hanging out everywhere. 

When he's more complete, I'll basically turn him loose in the house with some hard rules, and some motives, and see what behaviors emerge. I'll be using one or more of the Qwen models, and SQLite, so he has persistent memory, and I'll give him some motives- largely these will be related to the cats in my home... Observe them, but don't approach them... Collect empty bowls, and deposit them in a specific location... A little like it's doing field research on wild animals... In his constitution are a number of rules about my wife: her office is off limits, and don't approach her, or address her unless he has observed that there's a fire in the house, or if it finds cat vomit. She trusts me with this; but she's a little terrified of it because, well, AI. 

My background is in prosthetics/orthotics. I worked as a fabricator/clinical assistant for 32 years, and now I'm retired. Building a robot has been a dream of mine since I was a kid. What kid didn't dream of building their own robot? I have used chat GPT extensively throughout this build- as an assistant, and advisor. And I've used it for all the programming... It's bridged the gaps in my knowledge, and allowed me to do the engineering with some confidence. 

So that's us- me and NR-01FF. We're excited to be a part of HBRC, and looking forward to meeting and interacting with all of you great people! 

Cheers to building robots!!

Michael Neal
Respect. Curiosity. Ideas that matter.
From observation to insight, from insight to creation.
Email: michael...@gmail.com

Phone: 580-574-9504

[camp .]

    Very cool, Michael! Welcome to the Club!

HomeBrew Robotics Club

http://www.hbrobotics.org

- Camp

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[Dave Everett]

That is a very neat build Michael.

Dave