Back covers released and realistic eyes.

Get your printers warmed up!!!

I have uploaded the covers for the back and made a tutorial for the build process.
You can find all the STL files in the gallery. Remember when you download, all my files and design are under the CC-BY-NC licence.
In this tutorial I will show you how to assemble the back covers. It is pretty easy if your prints are correctly printed without warping otherwise, you will have a hard time to join all the parts together.
Some of these parts require support during 3D printing, so please check the list in the tutorial.




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Welcome to the new InMoov Website

As you can see InMoov is getting a new website. It has been a long hard work for the team of Quai Lab in Poitiers France, which remodeled, imported, modified, created this new interface. Big thanks to Sebastien and his co workers for this wonderful work.

Here is a list and pictures of all the things that happened since April:



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Nervo board Tutorial

I created a tutorial for the Nervo board available on the shop, using some of Martens pictures, to help you during your assembly.
http://www.inmoov.fr/nervo-board-tutorial/

I sure hope this helps.

Art research

I wanted to make pictures using InMoov into symbolisms treated with a harsh lighting.

Before December, Yethy proposed to do a photo session in my workshop with whatever moods and feelings we had. Thanks to him.

Because InMoov is a Art project, I had to place him into such environment that it finds it's purpose, it's goal, away from the events, sounds and Faires to which I have been going since I started it.
Many times during those events, people ask me, so what can this robot do? Sometimes, I'm tempted to reply; it does nothing it's a sculpture.

I'm used to work in photographic environment with my work, but it is different when you do something for yourself, you can really interact with the forms and the graphism of details. It was a while that I had these two pictures in mind among others.

The high level of contrast dissimulates the face of the baby, just like InMoov seems to come out from the darkness. The color of the baby skin takes all it's sensitivity and becomes like a painting in this two tones environment.

Many years ago I had sculpted this human skull and casted it to make a few reproductions. It was obvious to me to use it with InMoov in this session, because the message is rich of interpretations.




 

January with lots of progress!

The Nervo board is now available in the InMoov site Shop!!!!! (by the time I published this post, it was already out of stock, but you can backorder).

Nervo board, photo Leon Van der Host.

  After the Tech Fest in India, one of the first things I had to do was to fix a hardware issue on the InMoov 2 hand. One of the drivers had burned out because the hand stayed powered with the thumb stucked in a wrong position. The main reason was because a wire of the thumb got tangled inside the palm. I had to redesign the paths of that wire and re-print the parts.  
A few days ago, I received the Myo Thalmic Armband sent by Yohan of the FabLab Rennes and MHK(Bionico Nicolas Huchet). It was like receiving a Christmas present.  
Searching on the Net, I found a Arduino library that allows the Thalmic to communicate with the Arduino via the computer.  
I went on testing it and wrote a script, which first allowed me to use it with the InMoov finger starter (see third video) doing 3 small movements. The advantage of the Thalmic is the ease of use and set up. Once calibrated, you can remove it from your arm and put it back on (in the same position) it automatically works again, no need for re-calibration.  
The goal with the Thalmic was to be able to use it with the InMoov 2 hand. Ideally is to set various possible gestures. In fact the InMoov 2 has an onboard Arduino Nano that lets the user create any gesture desired and can be modified by just a plug and play USB connection to any Computer. The Thalmic uses Bluetooth to communicate, and as for today it cannot communicate directly with all Bluetooth devices of your choice, but it will and the plan is to have an onboard Bluetooth Arduino set in the hand to allow direct communication.  
I have been able to test the Thalmic also on the bicep muscle, it is more difficult to calibrate but I have been able to reproduce 3 differents set of gestures pretty reliably. Although the arm gestures to activate the sensor have to be rather large, which is a inconvenient if you want only the fingers of the InMoov 2 hand to be triggered.    
So this is huge progress!!! In the below video I'm using double taping fingers to "wake up" the Thalmic, but I can also do it without, which lets the hand constantly ready for any muscle activity.

What else happened this month:

Alessandro has borged into MyRobotLab the  Read More.................................................................

November & December

Tech Fest India

Thanks to Ashrith for inviting me, Nicolas and Marc to the TechFest.
Thanks to Aatur, Allan, Bhavya for organizing this trip and being so kind and helpfull during those 6 days.
Thanks to Sandrine Maximillien of the French Embassy, who has made it possible to get my passport and visa in time. And also managed for me to bring InMoov in my luggage.
More than 90 000 visitors in three days went through this tent. You can only imagine how intense this was. The Tech Fest is a free entrance event, anybody from India can come. The crowd was so huge that every 2 minutes, it was a new load of 30 people to whom we had to explain what is InMoov, Bionico, Open Source, 3D printer, robot and prosthetic.
After the 3 days, Nicolas and I were totally washed out, but happy to have done it!!





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InMoov2 hand progress

I worked recently on the new InMoov hand (InMoov2 hand). I had stopped a few months ago because my wire connections had something wrong and I had burned the Arduino Nano and one of the motor driver board. Being very buzy in all directions, kinect, legs,Nervo boards, Makerfaires,  I got driven away from it until 3 days ago.
Thanks to Leon and Marten which gave me a set of new Arduino Nano, I could start to work again. ( To remind who are Leon and Marten: they are getting the Nervo boards ready and they came to the Makerfaire Paris and Roma)
So getting back on it, I discovered what I done wrong and finally got the index and thumb working. The script I use gives very simple keyboard fonctions for now , although it took me a very long time to adapt it to my needs., but it is mostly a proof of concept. I'm still stucked though with the thumb actuation. For some reason (unknown) it extends but doesn't retract. I wonder if the driver I'm using got burned somehow during my previous attempts or if it is a script problem.

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Adafruit post an article about InMoov.

Adafruit 3D Community Spotlight

Photos of Gael Langevin / InMoov Raphaël Creton
Sculptor/designer Gael Langevin from Paris is the creator of InMoov (and on twitter), one of the most popular 3D printing robotics projects in the short history of desktop 3D printing. With photos of various builds of InMoov popping up all over the world — and featured in a many articles looking to show off what is possible with a 3D printer — this humanoid robot is one of the most recognizable faces (literally) of the “3D printing revolution.”


Read the article of Matthew Griffin, Adafruit...........................................

Makerfaire Roma and Rennes

This month was our second Makerfaire in Roma since I started the InMoov project. We got there just in time with the airplane to get ready with the robot for the next day opening. No problems with customs.

We were set along with the French Makerfaire team, Barbot, Bertier Luyt and Jean-Baptiste and 3DprinterX tattoo Machine.
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Alessandro Didonna was already on the set with his girlfriend, along with Bram Geenen of Wevolver. The location we had was perfect, a huge place with a lot of people passing through, not too much noise, which is good when you talk to the robots.
As planned, there was also Leon and Marten, that had a booth. Unfortunatly they were far away from us, and we only saw each at the end of the days when it was time for Pizza!!!
They had brought their DIY  Gimbal camera stand, a very well made Submarine (1m20) and the second version of the InMoov Nervo boards all ready and soldered to be mounted on the Arduino boards. Alessandro also got a kit. They offered me for my birthday an extra Arduino Mega board!!! Thanks guys!
I bet when the builders are going to see those picture, they are going to ask when are they going to be for sale... Sorry for the delays, but I'm not the only one in the loop on this. :)



 








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Geek Picnic 2 and New York Makerfaire

St Petersburg during summer can be very, very nice!!
And so was the Geek Picnic in Russia, with beautiful sunny days and incredibly a lot of people.
InMoov was doing the front cover on the website and flyers:
http://geek-picnic.ru/
http://www.tv100.ru/news/geek-picnic-na-elaginom-ostrove-98431/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2lP6qZVmPGQ

http://mir24.tv/news/Science/11025772 TV

http://topspb.tv/news/news50553/ TV

http://piter.tv/event/Geek_picnic/TV

http://www.otr-online.ru/news/v-severnoi-stolitse-32293.html TV

http://pechatnick.com/news/pechatnik-com-pobival-na-krypneishem-v-rossii-festivale-sovremennih-tehnologii-nayki-i-iskysstva   Press

The environment of the Geek Picnic and the area where we presented the robot was very nice, and we had enough space to move around and make our demonstrations. The only trouble was the sound… I hardly could give voice commands to the robot because we had a sort of disco shop with loud speakers big enough for a Rolling Stones concert.






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InMoov in New York

Come and see InMoov in New-York at the World Makerfaire this week-end.
I will be there along with MyRobotLab and WeVolver, Bionico.
We will have three InMoov robots displayed, lots of other projects with InMoov and of course a bunch of Makers and builders to talk to.

June and July for InMoov + Stomach parts

Ok, this is getting a bit too much to handle.
I barely find time to post on the website, I don't keep up with correspondance. InMoov is taking a bit too much space on my real life.
So please Dear InMoov followers be patient.
So in june we did the Futur en Seine event and we've met very interesting people and groups, in fact we have been approached and invited by Dassault Systems, they offer a developpement plateform which could be interesting for InMoov's futur.
The space at Futur en Seine was extremely loud :) Average 95db and up to 110DB recorded at peaks.
Although I never presented the robot in such a loud place, we did manage an Interview with Clubic.com: Clubic.com InMoov at Futur en Seine
Here are some pictures of the event on our InMoov Tweeter.

Then we did the First Paris MakerFaire. This was very nice because Alessandro came to Paris with his girlfriend, brother in law and his InMoov robot.
We both had a bit of trouble with our robots, these things happen sometimes. Mine got the mouth servo burned and the Leap Motion hand was out of function.
Alessandro had been printing a lots of parts for his robot with 1 shell setting at 30% infill. And two of his parts delaminated under the arm weight. Fortunatly I could reprint during the night in my workshop and during the day we were surrounded by 3D printers. Thanks to the Fabshop for helping on this.
Alessandro was doing cool demonstrations with kinematic movements and 4 PID eye tracking.
He had made some super T-shirts with the new logo, which we all were very happy to wear. These will be for sale on the InMoov site somewhere in september, if I get some time to organize that.
And above all, we were protected by the Force.





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New Servo Power Board for InMoov

As I said in my last post, I am working together with two Dutch builders (NL) to develop a shield for the Arduino boards to power up the servos of InMoov.
Leon and Marten have recently taken the Servo Power Board to the next level by getting real PCBs manufactured. Marten created the Gerber files following my recommendations but adding his professional knowledge which I really enjoyed to see.
Leon and Marten are now in the process to assemble one of them with ribbons and components, so later I can test them for The Makerfaire Paris. This will improve greatly the ease of built for new robotic builders.
If all goes well, they will be available on the site in July.
See pictures of Leon's progress:

InMoov gets his abdomen working

A video that explains the actuation of the abdomen of InMoov. Below those new parts will start the hip mecanism.
The pole support is getting weak and I have to secure the robot when he moves to the sides during the video. I need to make a better pole for the MakerFaire.
The ball bearings are pretty good and I think I will modify the shoulder parts to give the choice to new builders.
Grog of MyRobotLab has just fixed the InMoov service, so these new parts can be initialized with the rest of the robot script.
This is going to be fun for new gestures and movements!
I will release these parts at the end of June, beginning of July after running tests.  

InMoov at the Bal of Robot

I have a lot to say but I can't find time to write this post.
So I will make it short.
I have been busy to a point of no return, hey!
-Working to create a logo for InMoov.
-3D printing the stomach parts, testing, modifying, reprinting and finaly assembling them.
-Organizing what will be coming next on InMoov.
-Searching how to create cheap, fast, reliable actuators to developp the legs.
-Getting the InMoov prosthetic hand to it's final result.(Not happy yet)
-Getting a serious power servo PCB board done in China with the collaboration of Leon and Marten (NL) -Organising with WeVolver the future of InMoov as a complete developpement plateform and producing low cost kits.  

Here is InMoov with his logo on the NEW stomach parts,







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InMoov on ARTE TV, Futurmag

In French:




 In German:



This is a interview given to 3DNatives, also in French.
Sorry for all the english readers, but France is my home country and I'm happy to see french people finally discover 3D printing and what goodies it can bring!!
 http://www.3dnatives.com/robot-humanoide-inmoov/




Read more.................................... Oh no sorry, this time there is nothing more to read, but if you want read other things......................

Arduino Day for MyRobotLab and InMoov

Well as some already know we went to Amsterdam for the Arduino day. The event was organized by Richard and Bram of Ground3D, whom I've met during the 55 printers world record last year in Utrecht.

It took place on the Overkant in Amsterdam, a rather huge working place, where makers gather to build things. The makers had brought their creations along and of course there was some interesting things to see and to talk about. Arduino was one of the subject. :)

Leon, an InMoov follower, although he hasn't started to build one, was there and had brought some amazing copters made partly with a 3D printer and avery nice CNC he has recently developped. I also had the occasion to test a self balancing mecanism for cameras which gave me some ideas for the hips rotations.

Using InMoov2.0 in public for the first time was interesting, everything worked well. I really enjoyed to "detach" "attach" the servos from power source through voice commands. The 4PID worked perfect. The "search humans" had a rough time because of too many faces to chose from.
Tracking an object seemed a bit less accurate than before, but all the other commands worked very nicely.

This Lady has taken good care of me, preparing "toasties" for my lunch and coffees. Very nice!

Leon's Copter.

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InMoov prosthetic hand almost ready

 You can find more scripts for MRL and for InMoov in the Download tab:

Scripts to control your InMoov with MyRobotLab

If the script is a Inmoov.xxx it is for the MRL version 1695

If the script is a inmoov2.xxx it is for the latest versions

I have modified the pin setting of jaw servo between the two versions

I have added eyes pins which now allow 4 PID tracking.

-Version 1695 pin 12 on Arduino Uno (right side of the robot)

-Version latests pin 26 on Arduino Mega (left side of the robot)

You can find the hardware map and pins connections for inmoov 2.0 here:

http://www.inmoov.fr/default-hardware-map/

InMoov 2.0 is a new service implemented in MyRobotLab, FASTER, STRONGER, BETTER!!

It is not completely functional but it will have more features than inmoov 1.0

Thanks to Grog, and Alessandro we are progressing!!

Patchwork by Grog

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InMoov in Moscow, Geek Picnic

Still a few years ago I would have never thought that one day I could set a foot on the Russian ground. When the staff of the Geek Picnic invited us to come to Moscow, my wife and I said: "sure why not", but somehow it still seemed like something that wouldn't happen.
Slowly days of the event approached and the staff was organizing the trip seriously, hotel reservations, flight tickets, pass for the entrance. But on our side we still had to do a lot, get the visas, prepare the robot to make sure it would work correctly. Most important, and we found that out only two days before our departure, we had to get a form for to declare all parts we were going to make go through the customs.
If you are used with this kind of forms you might think it's easy, but for us it almost became a nightmare. To the point we almost decided not to go.

Right reserved.

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InMoov on the New Yorker.

Although the article isn't about InMoov but about Artificial intelligence I appreciate the idea.

What I don't appreciate though, is that the picture they used is copyrighted from Getty Image and it gives no attribution to InMoov.  I remember very well who took that picture in London. Almost everybody would ask the permission to take pictures of the robot, but this photographer did not, it was a professional because he had set his camera on foot and away enough so I wouldn't remark him.

That same night the picture was for sale on Getty Image with under text saying: An employee talking with the robot InMoov.  :(









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