Robotic Following Cart to Replace Light Duty Tractor Tasks?

[dougtrr2]

I must have missed something. You said there is no transmitter, it locks onto a person. You showing it following at a given distance. So, how do you get close enough to load it? Wouldn't it keep backing away?

Doug in SW IA

 

[candersen10]

We don't have it backing up in our current behavior. When we fully implement our user interface, we will have a button you push to prompt it to backup.

 

[candersen10]

Works in the city around many people also. Could this open up any other applications in peoples' minds (mail delivery, janitorial applications, etc.)?

 

[daugen]

nice demo on city streets. Would sure have to have padded corners/edges but that's easy. I like the idea of a follow behind mail cart. But you would have to follow a route to make sure there aren't parts that would stymie the machine. Clearly it isn't going to climb stairs. Handicap ramps help.

shouldn't a burro have a tail?

 

[candersen10]

nice demo on city streets. Would sure have to have padded corners/edges but that's easy. I like the idea of a follow behind mail cart. But you would have to follow a route to make sure there aren't parts that would stymie the machine. Clearly it isn't going to climb stairs. Handicap ramps help.

shouldn't a burro have a tail?

Maybe?

On another note, we just added a touch screen instead of buttons, thinking that it's actually lower cost and then a lot easier to swap code out on the fly for different behaviors.



Here is a video of current prototype: Burro 2WD Prototype - Features / Benefits / Uses - YouTube

Top markets we have in mind for it at the moment:
(1) Hand picked berries (blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, table grapes)
(2) Last mile delivery (in urban areas where people are now using 200-300 pound loaded hand carts to move packages up to a half mile)
(3) Livestock operations (such as broiler operations, where people are walking through the broiler houses picking things up and walking around with a lot of heavy weight)
(4) Janitorial settings where people are collecting refuse from many trash receptacles then have to carry it over long distances (i.e. airports etc.)

Any others that come to mind? Our cart can follow you, can record the path you've traveled and then retrace it back in complex environments without GPS, and has a high powered computer with a lot of sensors on board that can be used to collect all sorts of information/data.

 

[candersen10]

Here's a video of Burro moving firewood around. We'll definitely need a 4WD version for really muddy conditions but shows a bit of it's capabilities with weight.

 

[daugen]

is there any way you can lower the center of gravity/weight on that cart? Lower the loading floor is really what I mean.
Good test with the firewood, something heavy but
it looked a bit wobbly on a turn. I think you went plenty fast for a demo.

Ok, I admit wondering when did it turn over on you? under what conditions? Did you try larger loads?
If you say 250 pounds, some dimwhit will put 600 pounds on it.
Would be nice to have a pressure sensor under floor so if loaded weight exceeded say one hundred pounds over limit,
the thing would not move and would flash a Too Heavy light.
I know you are engineering for functionality now.

Most importantly, can it look like a Jeep?
I wonder what a speedy burro looks like...

Any chance it could have adjustable width axles/track? Wondering about rows or clearances

:thumbsup:

 

[Sysop]

I think the lower center of gravity could be achieved with more battery capacity down low, different support structure for the bed, and a slightly expanded wheelbase (width and length). I wouldn't want to see the loading floor lowered much more than the couple inches between it and the body of the unit because you would always need to bend over to reach the floor of the bed. If the man in the video is of average height, I'd 'guesstimate' that the top rail of the bed is only about 36"-40" from the ground, which is low enough for nearly anyone to work with.

I think it has progressed very well. I think it will do very well with only minor tweaks. I know such a thing, as it is, would be handy around my place.

 

[mikester]

Am I missing something? This looks more suitable to grandma in her city garden than replacing a tractor and loader. If I’m doing light duty tasks like moving mulch I’m grabbing a cubic yard at a time on my loader and driving it to where I need it because it’s way faster than walking.

I could see something like this for weeding the flower garden as long as it was self dumping and I just pressed a button for it to go dump the load to a pre-defined spot then come back. If I had to walk with it every time it wouldn’t even get a second glance from me.

How about selling these to garden centres for customers to go pick their potted plants and carry them around like a powered shopping cart?

 

[candersen10]

Am I missing something? This looks more suitable to grandma in her city garden than replacing a tractor and loader. If I知 doing light duty tasks like moving mulch I知 grabbing a cubic yard at a time on my loader and driving it to where I need it because it痴 way faster than walking.

I could see something like this for weeding the flower garden as long as it was self dumping and I just pressed a button for it to go dump the load to a pre-defined spot then come back. If I had to walk with it every time it wouldn稚 even get a second glance from me.

How about selling these to garden centres for customers to go pick their potted plants and carry them around like a powered shopping cart?

Mikester, on my farm, moving mulch I'd jump in our Deere 333E and move a cubic yard at a time. We would never be able to replace that type of work with a robot, unless we had tens of million dollars to throw at the problem.

We're trying to build something that is sized large enough to move significant weight, yet small enough that it fits where only a person can go today and thus does not have to compete with the incredible power/capability of modern diesel powered iron.

Our cart is small (just 26 inches wide) so can fit through a door, on a sidewalk, or in a narrow crop row yet can carry several hundred pounds without tiring anyone and while leaving their hands free to work.

We're trying to determine where to go with it from a use case perspective. We've thought: hand-picked berries as a shuttling device, broiler barns as a labor aid while people are picking up chickens that have died (towards the end of a growout you have to move 40 5-6 pound chicken carcasses, often in heavy buckets), the USPS as a last mile delivery aid.

Any other areas you could see? Appreciate your thoughts and feedback.

 

[mikester]

Have you talked with these guys? Its' a company local to me and they are trying a similar angle with industrial focus on their OTTO line

Clearpath Robotics: Autonomous Mobile Robots

For me I could see the usefulness of a self dumping unit that can haul 1,000+lbs similar to the tracked power wheelbarrows.

 

[candersen10]

Does this one look more the part (pre paint/pre wiring prototype, so excuse prototype-ish look)?

 

[candersen10]

Check this one out now - any thoughts? We will be running it at the Forbes Agtech Summit in Salinas at the end of June, and the world's largest berry company has agreed to pre-pay to test one out.

 

[daugen]

very cool video, going up and down the rows was illuminating.
However, why was it zigging around so much instead of going straight?
Reminds me of first gen lane control in cars where they pogo back and forth side
to side due to forceful response to radar return. It wasn't following anyone, I think..., so this
was a different operating mode? A memory return?

If I were really serious about this, I'd consider laying a wire like invisible fencing down the center of the tree/bush rows, just let it follow that...could that
be an option for outdoors? Floor tape for indoors?

Btw, love your collection of tractors.

4 wheels looks so much more stable, KISS on the touchpad for widest range of operators

 

[Creamer]

very cool video, going up and down the rows was illuminating.
However, why was it zigging around so much instead of going straight?

So that it doesn't wear a path.

 

[freedomlives]

I presume its following/recognizing the person from a camera? What about hand gestures as a control interface? I think its pretty intuitive from the human side, or at least people are mostly used to, signaling to the driver of a truck how to back up, how to turn a bit or a lot, etc.

 

[candersen10]

very cool video, going up and down the rows was illuminating.
However, why was it zigging around so much instead of going straight?
Reminds me of first gen lane control in cars where they pogo back and forth side
to side due to forceful response to radar return. It wasn't following anyone, I think..., so this
was a different operating mode? A memory return?

If I were really serious about this, I'd consider laying a wire like invisible fencing down the center of the tree/bush rows, just let it follow that...could that
be an option for outdoors? Floor tape for indoors?

Btw, love your collection of tractors.

4 wheels looks so much more stable, KISS on the touchpad for widest range of operators

It records exactly the path you have traveled. If you take a small turn in an area, it learns that turn and when it retraces the path tries to achieve it as well. It works outdoors and indoors.

I don't think anyone would be willing to lay down wire for a robot to follow. Why bother doing that if it is unnecessary and costly anyway?

Here's a video showing how it works:

 

[candersen10]

I presume its following/recognizing the person from a camera? What about hand gestures as a control interface? I think its pretty intuitive from the human side, or at least people are mostly used to, signaling to the driver of a truck how to back up, how to turn a bit or a lot, etc.

Voice or gestures are very possible. We've thought we'd focus on this later though as adding that capability is only a coded behavior which we could flash to them while they are out in the field. Right now, the ruggedized touch screen we have is what we use as an interface.

 

[cqaigy2]

That sure would have been nice back in the day when i was a kid an picking zucchini and other crops by hand. Walking the full buckets back out to be weighed and emptied was a real time and energy waster.

 

[Atchuuu]

Check this one out now - any thoughts? We will be running it at the Forbes Agtech Summit in Salinas at the end of June, and the world's largest berry company has agreed to pre-pay to test one out.

Very cool. Glad to see you are still working on it.