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The Evolution of the ER1
In 2003, the ER1’s first “skin” was plexiglass, but later versions used aluminum. This robot used the older servo motors without the gearboxes.
Designing a head for the ER1.
The original ER1 used scooter wheels, but a later version used tracks, sprockets, and pulleys for better mobility.
After switching to tracks, I soon found they used more power when making turns, especially on carpet.
So I shortened the tracks to halftracks, just as the military did for their trucks during World War II.
Around 2010 the ER1 used a notebook computer running Windows XP. These photos show the shoulders before the external gearboxes were installed.
The ER1’s original shoulder and the new shoulder with an external gearbox. The gearbox solved several problems...
now the arms don’t sag in toward the torso, and the motor shaft doesn’t break from the arms moving up and down.
These are more recent photos of the ER1 with a notebook running Windows XP. The notebook was later replaced
with a Motion computer tablet running Ubuntu Linux Mate, with ROS Kinetic (Robot Operating System) installed.
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