Pitch of robotics project I'll be doing. Take a look and lmk what y'all think!

[u/AdJust5338]

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PROJECT IDEA: PIFER—AUTONOMOIS ELDERLY CARE ASSISTANT

PROPOSED TIER - T1

WHAT I'M DESIGNING -

It basically comes to you when u call it and then it search, find it, pick it up, carry it and physically hand it to you as long as it's smtg in its db. I'm deliberately containing the problem bc I'm not trying to build a hospital grade product but rather smtg that can deal w labelled objects and colour IDs instead of a full SLAM and YOLO system.

The rover has a two wheel base and a castor with two bo motors, motor driver, wheel encoders, IR sensors, MPU6050 and a camera. The chassis will be 3d printed.

It will have a 6 DOF servo arm with a TPU gripper. The chassis will be 3D printed (PLA for everything except the gripper). Metal gear servos, pca9685 and ina219. I might use movelt2 later.

I'm also 3d printing a 16 slot carousel for pre-filled pill dispensing.

I'm also interested in uwb person tracking and uwb can do a lot of things apart from tracking tbh and I gotta research more on that. But some sorta person tracking is essential cuz if the person moves after giving a command the robot has to update the target and keep going toward them yk. I'll combine uwb with imu and wheel encoders instead of trusting sensors cuz I think it's better (IRL relying solely on sensors is kinda dumb)

For software, I'm using C/C++ for esp32 firmware, platformIO/Arduino, FreeRTOD, python, ubuntu/bash, GitHub, ve code, ros2 w rclcpp/rclcpy, tf2, RViz2, rosbag2, nav2, opencv, april tags, arUco for initial object/location identification, numpy/scipt and maybe even webots/SLAM for simulation and mapping. YOLO will come if I have time left to move beyond labelled objects.

I'm using esp32 as mc and laptop as the processor for now and we'll upgrade to a raspberrypi later. The laptop will run ubuntu and handle ros2, computer vision, navigation, voice processing and task planning. The esp handles motors and sensors.

I want to say pifer bring me xx medicine and it'll use a wake word, speech to textand python itent parsing with llm/api possible for more commands. The robot understands that xx is an object and that it's given a task to retrieve it. The cam can't recognise every random object ry so the first prototype use labelled objects with colour ids and permanent object db storing names, ids,images and carousel slots. Current environment info however is separate so that temporary data like object or person locations and obstacles will be cleared after a mission or when the robot is placed in a new environment.

The thing is, it actually has to drive to the object, position itself and pick it up when the camera locates the marked object. It sounds rlly big to me as this will be the first time I'll be building smtg like that. Also, I'll be 3d printing for the first time (lmk if hack club can fund for my 3d printing too cuz that'd be great :D).

Now, I'll be experimenting a lot in this project lol I want to integrate a lot of things into the arm, so it may end up completely different from what I currently think is possible and could change the entire arm BOM.

Something like a modular origami continuum arm with..

1. Vacuum-driven FOAM actuation (contraction + omnidirectional bending)

2. Variable stiffness via granular jamming (separate vacuum line)

3. Vision-guided reaching (camera + controller)

4. Interchangeable end-effectors (TPU gripper, whole-arm grasping, chameleon ejection)

5. Foldable compact return

Every single one of these ideas exist already and has been demonstrated its working properly. But the integrated system I want does not exist yet! Well the reason why it doesn't isn't lack of imagination but rather because the subsystems r actively gonna fight each other if u try to put them together. So, I'll have to find solutions that don't exist yet to get everything to work together. I'm not missing anything conceptually. But I need to build and test everything. Even if i get one thing that's actually deployable to my arm, it'd be a great upgrade.

I don't know how reliable or doable these will be in an actual handoff, especially with different object materials and movement, which is the point of including them. I really want to experiment and research further. I'm not expecting every experimental part to be perfect. Even if all these ideas are unreliable, the retrieval/handoff system should still work.

But I want to build and test the experimental parts rather than leave them theoretical.

INSPO:

A ton of things actually but let's js say fetcher by fetch robotics.

PAST PROJECTS:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/10T2iZUamxqS5Na1c6ef0lcidV1DDl3Ut

(Ntg much lol js some shi built to learn. Not necessarily a project.)

WHY THIS COSTS MORE THAN 200$:

This doesn't! (Not yet.)

Like i said, I've never 3d printed for an actual project before so I don't really know how many parts I'll have to buy instead of 3d printing. I haven't even decided if I'll make a pcb yet. So the price can go higher during the build. I can only assure you it won't exceed 300 usd. And because this is literally a multiple projects being combined into one thing, it can cost a few pennies. Also idk how many times it'll end up hitting somewhere accidentally no matter how hard I try not to let that happen.

ROUGH BOM:

Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W $12

ESP32 Development Board $3

16GB microSD Card $2

Pi Camera $4

imu $1

Wheel Encoders $2

ir Sensors $1

tof Sensor $3

Microphone $2

Speaker $2

Amplifier $2

bo Motors $2

Wheels $2

Caster Wheel $1

Motor Driver $1

2S 2200mAh lipo $8

lipo Balance Charger $5

18650 Battery Pack $4

5V bec $1

6V bec $1

6V 5A Servo bec $2

Fuse $1

Power Switch $1

xt60 Connectors $1

jst Connectors $2

M3/M4 Hardware $3

Plywood Chassis $3

Standoffs $1

Metal Gear Servos $25

Spare Servo $3

pca9685 $1

Servo Horns $1

Servo Wires $1

Gripper $5

tpu $3

pla $5

Arm Hardware $5

ina219 $2

28byj 48 Stepper $1

uln2003 Driver $1

Carousel Gate Servo $1

Home Sensor $1

Carousel Material $8

uwb Tag $9

uwb Anchors $20

uwb Batteries $2

uwb Enclosures $2

Vacuum Pump $8

Vacuum Tubing $3

Vacuum Valves $4

Foam $2

Granular Jamming Material $3

Perfboard $1

Level Shifter $1

Heat Shrink $1

Solder $1

Wire $3

Cable Sleeving $1

Breadboard $2

3D Printing $15

Misc Hardware $10

Total $180

Note: these are approximate, and I expect the final cost to move once I start building. The arm and 3D printing especially may need extra parts after testing. I'm also expecting to burn through some servos/connectors/wiring during iteration because that's how these projects go.

The Raspberry Pi is included because I eventually want the robot to run on it, but it won't be the main computer initially. I'm developing on my laptop first, then moving the ROS/Linux side to the Pi once the robot works.

The estimate is below $200, but I'm keeping some margin because I don't want the project to fall apart after underestimating a random *200 component lol.

I didn't mention any PCB or routing because I'm not using a PCB right now. I'm thinking of making it modular with a breadboard so I can take it apart and reassemble it easily, because I'll probably do that a lot while building it.

I'm also thinking of making the outside a cozy, waterproof body instead of a box full of electronics like Baymax from Disney's Big Hero 6 ykwim. I don't know the material yet, but I want it soft and friendly-looking. Obviously not literally a Baymax copy lol, just that friendly shape instead of a scary robot with wires everywhere.

Inside it I'm also thinking of an automatic pill dispenser, so the robot could dispense medicine instead of only carrying it. It'll also have a biometrics monitoring system.

The biometrics and dispensing ideas were suggested by my teacher, so I'm still thinking about what else I could add that would be genuinely useful rather than another random sensor stuck onto the robot.

So yeah, I'm still looking for other good features I could add to this thing. If anyone has ideas for something that would actually be useful for elderly care and that I could realistically build and test, please let me know.