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Mini Pupper: Open-Source,ROS Robot Dog Kit

Make robotics easier for schools, enthusiasts, and beyond.

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$449.00
MangDang has 1 orders / 0reviews
Ships from Hong Kong
Highlight
Online store: https://mangdang.store/
Online documents: https://minipupperdocs.readthedocs.io/en/latest/index.html

Challenge
Boston Dynamics Spot is an amazing robot dog, many people want to own it, but it's too expensive. It's difficult to find a ROS, OpenCV, open-source robot dog platform to study at less than $1,000USD.

Solution and Product
Mini Pupper is the open-source robot dog platform that supports ROS SLAM, Navigation, and other OpenCV AI features.
It's a Boston Dynamics Spot Robot Dog in the Palm, will make robotics easier for schools, homeschool families, enthusiasts, and beyond.

Online channel:
Discord: https://discord.gg/xJdt3dHBVw
Website: www.mangdang.net

Outline:

  • Project Status
  • Problem
  • Solution and Product
  • How to buy it?
  • What's Mini Pupper's value?
    • Open source: DIY what your custom robot dog
      • Software custom 
      • Hardware custom 
      • What’s More
    • ROS: A Dynamic System that You Can Keep Developing
      • SLAM
      • Navigation
    • AI: OpenCV
  • Why does Mini Pupper Stand Out?
  • How to use it?
  • How to Build?
  • About us

If you have any questions, connect us by DiscordFaceBookYoutubeTwitter

Mini Pupper has 2 versions, Mini Pupper and Mini Pupper 2.

Mini Pupper will make robotics easier for schools, homeschool families, enthusiasts and beyond.

  • AWS LLM(large language model) service can be built-in and released at the workshop of AWS re: Invent, NOV. 27 – DEC. 1, 2023 | LAS VEGAS, NV. 
  • ROS: support ROS  1 and ROS 2 SLAM&Navigation.
  • OpenCV: support OpenCV official OAK-D-Lite 3D camera module, working with OpenCV&Luxonis RobotHub team to do more interesting features.
  • Open-source: DIY and custom what you want, won a HackadayPrize!
  • Raspberry Pi: it’s super expandable, endorsed by Raspberry Pi.

Mini Pupper news:

  • Mini Pupper will join CES 2024,  JAN. 9 – JAN. 12, 2024 | LAS VEGAS, NV. 
  • Mini Pupper 2 competition will be held at the IEEE R1&R1 Student Activities Conference, in April 2024.

Mini Pupper activities before:

  • AWS LLM(large language model) service workshop at AWS re: Invent, NOV. 27 – DEC. 1, 2023 | LAS VEGAS, NV.  The guide is here
  • Mini Pupper workshops at the Student Activities Conference (SAC) which is sponsored by IEEE Region 2 & Region 1, 21 Oct 2023.
  • Mini Pupper had some wonderful workshops at the events of ROS, Ubuntu, and AWS in 2022. The video clip is here.


Problem

There is no ROS, open-source robot dog platform to study at less than $1,000USD.

You maybe see many demos from Boston Dynamics Spot Mini, many guys want to own their own robot dog to explore the functions, but the price is too high to accept, and it is not easy to explore the robot dog features.TurtleBot is very convenient for wheeled robot study, but not legged robots. 

Solution and Product

Beginning 2020, we shipped many Stanford Pupper units worldwide. After such global success with Pupper, we took to heart all the feedback from this endeavor. What do our customers want in our products? What kind of products do they like? After more than 11 months pursuing these requests, we would like to show you what we came up with. Mini Pupper!

Mini Pupper is the open-source robot dog platform that supports ROS SLAM, Navigation, and OpenCV AI features with Lidar, camera, and other sensors. It's really a Boston Dynamics Spot Robot Dog in the Palm and legged "TurtleBot"  for study at less than $500USD. 

Mini Pupper will make robotics easier for schools, homeschool families, enthusiasts, and beyond.

How to Purchase

If you purchase the parts yourself one by one, it’ll run you about $800 and more time. However, you can purchase a kit to build the robot on Tindie.

What's Mini Pupper's value?

Open source: DIY what your custom robot dog

In June 2021, MangDang released Mini Pupper on the Stanford Pupper website in collaboration with Nathan Kau, the original creator of Stanford Pupper, to bring to market a commercial and reasonably priced educational quadruped robot that anyone could engagingly use for fun robotics research and experiments.

  • Software custom 

Gait Performance

You can use Mini Pupper to explore many gait performances, such as Trot (diagonal pairs), Pace (lateral pairs), and the Bound (front and rear pairs).

Facial Animation

You can easily custom your own facial animation, mechanical...

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  • 1 × You can find BOM list in project description or GitHub link.

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Discussions

JMnemonic007 wrote 04/23/2022 at 16:59 point

Is there another mini pupper forum then that on Facebook?

I'm no Facebook user and don't want to become one due to data security reasons.

  Are you sure? yes | no

Afreez Gan wrote 04/24/2022 at 00:44 point

We have a Discord channel, can you join it?
https://discord.gg/fZPPjWKw
Thanks!

  Are you sure? yes | no

JMnemonic007 wrote 04/25/2022 at 16:24 point

Thank you so much for leading me to that channel. This ist really helpful!

  Are you sure? yes | no

JMnemonic007 wrote 04/23/2022 at 16:57 point

How does the battery monitor work? I always have the problem that battery runs out of power while I'm working with the software on the Raspberry Pi. Is there a mode were one can use a power supply while working on the robot when mobility is not necessary?

  Are you sure? yes | no

Afreez Gan wrote 04/24/2022 at 00:43 point

The speaker will alarm when the battery is low.

During the working with the software, you can plug in the Raspberry Pi power supply, thanks!

  Are you sure? yes | no

craig2tom wrote 02/21/2022 at 20:52 point

I've been pondering the way to make a stair-climbing robotic to rove around my residence and this seems like a well designed platform to get info about golden retriever puppies.

  Are you sure? yes | no

Afreez Gan wrote 03/12/2022 at 01:18 point

Thanks, but Mini Pupper is so small to the real stairs :)

  Are you sure? yes | no

mailonghua wrote 12/04/2021 at 09:45 point

Very good design, I would like to ask if the original title map of the motor drive hardware is open source, where can I download it? thank you

  Are you sure? yes | no

Afreez Gan wrote 03/12/2022 at 01:19 point

Thanks, you can find everything on our GitHub, please check it,https://github.com/mangdangroboticsclub/

  Are you sure? yes | no

Dusan Petrovic wrote 09/30/2021 at 14:56 point

Nicely done. Keep up the amazing creations!

  Are you sure? yes | no

Afreez Gan wrote 09/30/2021 at 23:21 point

Hey Dusan, many thanks for your help! Will try our best!

  Are you sure? yes | no

Joshua Mouch wrote 09/29/2021 at 17:41 point

Are the 3d printable part files available anywhere?  I don't see them available on the github page.

  Are you sure? yes | no

Afreez Gan wrote 09/29/2021 at 17:44 point

I upload our latest printed files as a Hack Chat gift to google drive, please confirm it if you need it:)

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1T_J6pcALxuLAoklKPrTxZPnOd6V5lY8z/view?usp=sharing
Welcome to the Hack Chat room.
https://hackaday.io/messages/room/2369

  Are you sure? yes | no

rraetz wrote 09/21/2021 at 19:42 point

Amazing project! I jave a technial question though: You say you are using ROS, but when I check the code on Github, I don't see anything ROS-related. On which level are you using ROS? Or is it not implemented yet? Thanks a lot for your reply

  Are you sure? yes | no

Afreez Gan wrote 09/22/2021 at 06:42 point

Thanks for your question. Yup, you can play the basic functions based on now Github code, but not include ROS. We will release the ROS version after our Kickstarter campaign.

  Are you sure? yes | no

rraetz wrote 09/22/2021 at 07:50 point

Cool, thanks for the quick answer!

  Are you sure? yes | no

David Greenberg wrote 09/02/2021 at 21:08 point

This is very cool! I can't find links to the autonomous navigation code--could you post a link to that?

  Are you sure? yes | no

Afreez Gan wrote 09/03/2021 at 00:57 point

We are still updating the source code, including the new Lidar(smaller and more beautiful ) module and 3D camera module, will update the pictures and videos before next weekend, plan to release all the source code after our Kickstarter campaign. We are trying to make the campaign live before the end of this month.

  Are you sure? yes | no

Afreez Gan wrote 06/10/2021 at 08:20 point

Thank you very much!

We spent much time optimizing the performance and quality, you know, there is still no off-the-shelf hobbyist servo for the quadruped product. The custom servo can ensure Mini Pupper runs stable much longer without breaking.

  Are you sure? yes | no

Jarrett wrote 06/10/2021 at 06:28 point

Could you go more into what you did for your custom servo?

Project looks intriguing, good work!

  Are you sure? yes | no

Afreez Gan wrote 10/18/2021 at 05:13 point

Will release the servo spec after the campaign, please wait, thanks!

  Are you sure? yes | no

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