So You Want to Build an InMoov Robot…
written by Isabel
First off, good luck.
The process is definitely a learning experience and a labor of love. You will bleed from slipped screwdrivers and sticking your fingers in messy robot heads, you will sweat from lugging around an awkward 20 kilo robot torso, you might even just sit at your desk and cry from frustration for a few seconds when your robot falls over accidentally and completely severs its shoulder and neck (not that this happened to me or anything). The process of building a robot completely from scratch is a long, complex, and tedious process. You will feel immense pride when you get the very first finger moving and when you finally get the software running alongside the hardware. Then when you finally have everything complete and working, you will feel extremely underwhelmed simply because you know there is always more to do and improve. Before you start your very own InMoov, take a few pointers from me.
Building an InMoov is not as simple as just following the tutorials. There is so much information on the internet that is constantly changing and evolving. Some information is out of date or you may find a better edit or easier design from another builder. Do your research beforehand to get the best and most up-to-date information. The benefit of an open-source project is people share everything online, take advantage of that! A few builders that I have found particularly helpful are Bob Houston and Kevin Campbell. They both have some great videos on YouTube.
If you do not have previous mechanical, electrical, or software experience beforehand, start with a few small Arduino projects first. It takes a pretty savvy person to pull off all the interconnected components of this project. Practice up if you’re not already comfortable with Arduino, soldering, 3D printing, Python, and working with tools. Check out my previous blog post for a quick project that works with 3D printing, servos, and Arduino.
No matter what way you go about it, printing is going to be a pain. It is by far the most time consuming aspect but it’s worth it to fine tune the settings and print in good quality to save yourself a lot of cutting and sanding after the fact. Parts are going to fail, crack, or simply not fit. It will take some experimentation to get the settings right. I’m telling you now, however much material you think you need, you will need more. I printed the majority of the parts in ABS for the durability, but printed the cover pieces (read: non-load-bearing) in PLA because it doesn't warp as easily and ends up with a nicer finish. Take extra care and precaution when printing the shoulder parts. They have the largest torque on them from the arm and have a few weak points that are prone to cracking. I’m going to do a separate post about the problems I ran into while printing and the settings I used to get the best results.
Download and play around in myrobotlab before you finish the entire robot. If you plan to use the open source software built for InMoov (myrobotlab), download it and get comfortable with it while you still only have a few of the hardware components. I did not do this and let me tell you, experimenting with an unknown software on a robot that you just spent 6 months building is STRESSFUL. Save yourself the stress, get comfortable so once your precious robot is complete, it is easy to integrate all the hardware together.
Lastly, always follow good building practices. Read the instructions thoroughly before you even touch a tool, get all your parts and tools ready ahead of time and always always always measure, check, and double check before cutting or gluing anything. It will save you a lot of time and frustration.
Happy Building!!
To view the original InMoov project, visit Gael’s website
