OpenBot AI Robot
Another AI? It seems that now anyone who can walk a few steps on the ground dares to call themselves AI. People are starting to feel aesthetic fatigue. Well, let’s first take a look at the introduction video of the OpenBot robot presented in this article.
From the video, we see that OpenBot can analyze images captured by the camera in real-time and achieve human-following functionality.
OpenBot Human Following Demonstration
Additionally, OpenBot can recognize its surroundings through the camera and navigate autonomously.
OpenBot Robot Autonomous Navigation Demonstration
Friends familiar with robot building must know that a smart robot capable of achieving the above effects should typically cost in the thousands. However, the component cost of OpenBot is only around 100 Yuan. If you don’t believe me, let me list the component list, and we will let the numbers speak.
OpenBot Material List and Cost Estimation (the following prices are for reference only):
| Material |
Quantity |
Reference Price (¥) |
| Arduino Nano Development Board |
1 |
12 |
| Speed Sensor Module |
1 |
2.5 |
| HC-SR04 Ultrasonic Distance Sensor Module |
1 |
5 |
| L298N Motor Driver Module |
1 |
7 |
| 18650 Battery |
3 |
30 |
| 18650 Battery Holder |
1 |
5 |
| 4-Wheel Car Kit |
1 |
35 |
| LEDs and Dupont Wires (various) |
2 |
| USB OTG Cable |
1 |
15 |
| Switch |
1 |
1 |
| Total Price: |
115 |
Regarding the above price calculation, please note two points. First, the developers of OpenBot specifically created a 3D printed chassis for this robot (open source). Through careful research, I found that if you are not familiar with 3D printing, you can completely use a common 4-wheel car kit to replace the 3D printed chassis. Therefore, the above price calculation includes a 4-wheel car kit.
Additionally, the OpenBot development team specially designed a circuit board (open source) to connect the above electrical components. I feel that this circuit board can make component connections more convenient. However, even without this circuit board, we can still use Dupont wires to connect the various components. Therefore, this circuit board is not included in the above price calculation.
OpenBot Robot Wiring Diagram
Additionally, to build this robot, a smartphone is required for core AI computation and image processing.
Regarding smartphones, I believe all maker friends must have one. Moreover, due to the need for updates, many friends may have more than one smartphone.
The following list is the list of test smartphones mentioned in the official OpenBot documentation. Please note that the following phone models are merely a series of phones tested by the developers. This does not mean that OpenBot only supports the phones listed below.
-
Huawei P30 Pro
-
Xiaomi 9
-
Samsung Note 10
-
OnePlus 6
-
Huawei P30 Lite
-
Xiaomi Note 8
-
Xiaomi Poco F1
-
Samsung Note 8
From this list, it can be seen that most of the phone release dates are within the last couple of years, so this robot does not require the latest smartphone.
Although it does not require the latest phone, we also cannot use an overly outdated smartphone to build OpenBot to ensure the robot’s operational effectiveness. After all, the phone plays the role of both the eyes and the brain in OpenBot. An old smartphone’s camera and processing speed may affect OpenBot’s performance.
Alright, after all this, if you are interested in making OpenBot, you can obtain resources for free through the following website.
Project Official Website: http://www.openbot.org/
Software and Hardware Resources: https://github.com/intel-isl/OpenBot
Project Paper: https://arxiv.org/abs/2008.10631
All the above resources are located abroad. If you have trouble downloading, you can download OpenBot resources through the following Baidu Cloud link. Please note that the resources in the following link will not be updated in real-time with the official OpenBot. Therefore, it is strongly recommended to use the above official website to obtain OpenBot resources.
https://pan.baidu.com/s/1eBtuV_YN1jPHWFapg5OMvw
Extraction Code: fdir
OpenBot uses the Arduino Nano development board. If you wish to learn and use the Arduino development board, you can study through our Taiji Maker team’s video tutorial “Introduction to Arduino for Beginners”.
You can visit our website www.taichi-maker.com and find the tutorial detail page through the “Learn to Use Arduino” link on the homepage.
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