>>16600
>Please explain why you're against steppers? I do value your thoughts and I want to learn
You are right they have some uses (where the inertia can be hidden/compensated like with or where the mass is not an issue like in medical manipulators, for example), but specific power is too low. As motors I like them and I have used them, but they are not up to the task I envision.
... Also there is no walking robot I have seen where the steppers were used in leg actuators. And that sums it up. High-performance arms are hard as well, and I don't see how you could use a stepper unless you have a very specific design where its mass isn't being lifted by the other motors (including legs).
>Feels like a decade since I last researched the HRP-4 platform. Impressive for the time, it still relies on brute force to overcome it ineficient design.
While I agree that japanese robots tend to be static and relatively inefficient compared to boston dynamics' singular designs (comprising a class of their own tbh, being built by very bright and degreed engineers passionate about the idea - very hard to compete with), HRP4-C is notably more lightweight than its predecessors. It's a honest attempt at building a real humanoid robots by smart educated asian engineers.
>>16604
Yes, low-power dynamic walk is a possibility, though it's nonlinear and hard. With these nonlinear features you have to co-design the whole humanoid mechanism around it so that at any point of the intended functionality space you don't destroy the possibility of the nonlinear phenomena you need working.
>>16705
Nice design, feels almost like a mujoco model tbh, we should try implementing it and trying RL controller on it.
>>16734
>What rods are recommended by the team
RC hobby carbon rods, or glass fiber, or a good wood would fit. Wood is good enough.
>>16828
I like rocker-bogie for mobility, though the bearings and associated servos may be too hard to control, removing much of the benefit of a mobile base KISS-wise.
Overall, my position is simple: once you can make a semi-decent servo from a hobby BLDC, you have the hardest part of the robot ARM. The rest is design and 3D-printing, or appropriating existing hand designs (e.g.
http://inmoov.fr/build-yours/hand-and-forarm-assembly-3d-views/ ). Once you have a robot arm, you have the hardest part of a wheeled mobile robot (the other hard part being power electronics for managing autonomy and power supply though).
Thus we need to focus on a servo, or a stepper for that matter (if we are going to build a heavy slow arm[1], which is better than none).
Maybe you could create a webpage on neocities.org with a realistic bullet list of features for a given year, and BTC/ETH/XMR addresses for the kind souls to donate. If we made a decent simulation and showed it to enough people, surely some would donate some money for you to buy BLDCs and other gear.
1. PR2 robot (heavy & obsolete, notably uses mechanical gravity compensation in its heavy arms)
https://www.clearpathrobotics.com/assets/downloads/pr2/pr2_manual_r321.pdf