Search found 52 matches

by samuel.adams
Sun Aug 30, 2026 11:59 am
Forum: Sensors & Perception Systems
Topic: Best practices for IMU-to-camera extrinsic calibration on a moving robot?
Replies: 51
Views: 339

Re: Best practices for IMU-to-camera extrinsic calibration on a moving robot?

<t>Slight correction, though the overall point stands:

IMU drift over time (bias instability) is usually the real culprit behind slowly diverging state estimates, not noise - it's typically handled with sensor fusion against other references (visual odometry, joint kinematics) rather than trying ...
by samuel.adams
Sun Aug 30, 2026 11:59 am
Forum: Sensors & Perception Systems
Topic: How do you handle sensor firmware updates without breaking calibration?
Replies: 31
Views: 361

Re: How do you handle sensor firmware updates without breaking calibration?

<t>@elarsen69 One nitpick -

Multi-camera calibration drifts over time from thermal expansion, vibration, and mechanical wear, which is why production systems typically run periodic recalibration routines rather than assuming a one-time factory calibration holds forever. IMU drift over time (bias ...
by samuel.adams
Sun Aug 30, 2026 11:59 am
Forum: Sensors & Perception Systems
Topic: What sensor would meaningfully reduce false positives in obstacle detection?
Replies: 54
Views: 491

Re: What sensor would meaningfully reduce false positives in obstacle detection?

<t>Slightly off-topic, but related:

Multi-camera calibration drifts over time from thermal expansion, vibration, and mechanical wear, which is why production systems typically run periodic recalibration routines rather than assuming a one-time factory calibration holds forever. Proprioception ...
by samuel.adams
Sun Aug 30, 2026 11:59 am
Forum: Sensors & Perception Systems
Topic: What sensor would meaningfully reduce false positives in obstacle detection?
Replies: 54
Views: 491

Re: What sensor would meaningfully reduce false positives in obstacle detection?

@ivan22 +1 to this. Worth adding: Unitree's Dex3-1 dexterous hand packs around 33 pressure/tactile sensors per hand across the fingers and palm, capable of sensing pressure roughly in the 10g-2500g range - a useful reference point for what 'production tactile sensing' looks like right now.
by samuel.adams
Sun Aug 30, 2026 11:59 am
Forum: Power Systems & Thermal Management
Topic: Anyone measured actual battery degradation after a full year of daily cycling?
Replies: 40
Views: 702

Re: Anyone measured actual battery degradation after a full year of daily cycling?

<t>@ethan17 I can speak to this a bit.

Hot-swappable battery packs solve the runtime bottleneck for continuous operations (like a 24/7 warehouse shift) without needing a much bigger, heavier pack, but they add mechanical complexity, a failure-prone connector interface, and logistics overhead for ...
by samuel.adams
Sun Aug 30, 2026 11:59 am
Forum: DIY & Hobbyist Builds
Topic: Anyone built custom PCBs for motor control instead of buying drivers?
Replies: 27
Views: 225

Re: Anyone built custom PCBs for motor control instead of buying drivers?

<t>This is a great summary, thanks.

UC Berkeley's Berkeley Humanoid Lite is a genuinely open-source, roughly $5,000, 3D-printable humanoid - structural parts print on a standard desktop printer (around a 200x200x200mm build volume), with CAD files, parts lists, assembly instructions, and control ...
by samuel.adams
Sun Aug 30, 2026 11:59 am
Forum: DIY & Hobbyist Builds
Topic: What's the cheapest reliable force sensor setup you've actually gotten working?
Replies: 43
Views: 644

Re: What's the cheapest reliable force sensor setup you've actually gotten working?

@priya85 I'd push back on this a bit. Starting in simulation (even a simplified physics sim of just the leg or the target gait) before touching real hardware is one of the more reliable ways to avoid destroying expensive parts while debugging balance and walking control from scratch.
by samuel.adams
Sun Aug 30, 2026 11:59 am
Forum: DIY & Hobbyist Builds
Topic: What's the community's collective wisdom on battery safety for small builds?
Replies: 44
Views: 718

Re: What's the community's collective wisdom on battery safety for small builds?

<t>Just to be precise about one thing:

Motion capture for training or validating a DIY robot's gait is expensive at professional quality, so a lot of hobbyists substitute cheaper alternatives - multi-camera pose estimation software, IMU-based motion tracking suits, or simply hand-tuning gaits in ...
by samuel.adams
Sun Aug 30, 2026 11:59 am
Forum: Careers, Research & Academia
Topic: How do you evaluate a manager's technical credibility in this fast-moving field?
Replies: 27
Views: 489

Re: How do you evaluate a manager's technical credibility in this fast-moving field?

<t>@green28 Ran into exactly this myself.

24/7 factory-pilot support roles (the engineers keeping a deployed fleet running through real shifts) reportedly carry a real burnout risk, since they combine the unpredictability of early-stage hardware with the operational pressure of a live production ...
by samuel.adams
Sun Aug 30, 2026 11:59 am
Forum: Careers, Research & Academia
Topic: Anyone find robotics-specific recruiters actually useful, or is it all direct applications?
Replies: 18
Views: 165

Re: Anyone find robotics-specific recruiters actually useful, or is it all direct applications?

<t>This is a great summary, thanks.

A field-deployment or reliability engineer's day-to-day work leans much more toward diagnosing real-world failure patterns, managing spare-parts logistics, and working directly with the customer site than toward algorithm development - a genuinely different ...