flatcat ~ your next robot is a pet

Description

Social robots and AI pets can be an alternative to real pets. Not only for robot enthusiasts but also for people who cannot, do not want to, or are not allowed to keep animals. For instance, people living in care homes are often not able to or allowed to keep a dog, a cat, or a bird. But there are only a few robots that move toward fulfilling the function of a pet.

We build flatcat, a minimalist pet-like social robot that reacts to human touch in a way not seen with such robots before. It provides an immersive tactile experience through the use of a new control paradigm called cognitive sensorimotor loops (CSL).

flatcat intentionally does not mimic existing animals.

Here, we'll describe its mechanical and electrical design.

We know this site is pretty incomplete, fat sorry! So please write us in the chat, which details you are interested in the most. And in the meantime please check our paper (in the links section) for full detail :)

cheers matthias

Files

energymodule_rev1.sch.pdf

energymodule schematics

Adobe Portable Document Format - 65.21 kB - 04/24/2022 at 16:33

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sensorimotor_rev_r1_3.sch.pdf

sensorimotor schematics

Adobe Portable Document Format - 62.94 kB - 04/24/2022 at 16:31

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architecture.pdf

the robot's components diagram

Adobe Portable Document Format - 99.07 kB - 04/24/2022 at 16:27

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Project Logs

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Tribbles vs. flatcat
Matthias Kubisch • 04/24/2022 at 17:15 • 0 comments

We might get pretty close to these :)
Details on Robot Housing
Matthias Kubisch • 04/24/2022 at 17:09 • 0 comments

We used 3D printing (black and transparent PLA) to create the housing of our robot, of course :)
And in the head module, there is a Raspberry Pi, also pretty obvious :)
Details about Sensorimotor
Matthias Kubisch • 04/24/2022 at 16:56 • 0 comments

For flatcat we wanted smart servo motors to provide the necessary sensor feedback needed for modern robotics controls. But we found only insufficient or too expensive motor solutions, so we created a new motor control board called Sensorimotor.

A Sensorimotor is a distributed low-level DC servo controller networked via a symmetrical bus (RS485) and comes as free-design hardware (see schematics in the files) and free/open-source firmware and middleware (see git repository). Its circuit board is designed so that it fits into standard-sized, low-cost servos in order to replace their original electronics.

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flatcat ~ your next robot is a pet

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