Macleod Sawyer

designing a new type of robot, and not only would this thing be insanely cool to see, it would also use vast amounts of recycled materials in its production, so both really cool and sustainable, a literal solarpunk dream.

What will it be designed to do?

We build modular systems at DNX, so this is a new type of motor and wheel system that lets you build anything else on top of it. Removing some of the more banal and harder problems of robotics: motion. That way you can focus on the other hard problems, and not the support structure, motors, programming, and pathfinding that a modern robotic platform should have (that many don't) in a modular, plug and play, format.

tl;dr: Practically anything that moves, can be built on it.

In theory, the new system should lower costs, increase reliability, offer off-road capabilities, and have more power (torque, acceleration, cargo/weight capacity, and battery life), for less than anything else in its class that's on the secondhand market (used) today.

I still have a lot of work to do.

This weekend I picked up a lot of the core materials for this. In designing I've noticed some pretty major problems that are going to be tough to sort out, but it'll get there. Hopeful for pictures of a crude proto-proto-protoype this month, likely next, depending on a bunch of things.

I've also restarted the internal operating system project, ChariotOS, migrating a lot of my custom runtime orchestrator code over to the BEAM with Elixir, since I ended up realizing I definitely prefer managing code and bugs in Elixir than I do in Rust (some of our core networking and serial data allocator will remain in Rust through a series of NIFs, something I already do for our custom radio control interface with C, so I'm not reasonably worried about the mission criticality of it all).

Had such a great idea last night that I couldn't sleep, and spent the entire night (and morning...) designing out all the components and systems. This is surprising as this is atleast the third time I've had this exact same revelation according to my notes.

I think this time it's finally going to stick.

It is not going to stick, at least not in the way that I originally thought, but this does not mean the idea is fundamentally bad, only that when combined with the problem and solution (they are the same thing these days) that I am currently facing you may get something extraordinarily cool.

Not particularly the avenue I thought I would end up going, but definitely one that 𝒊𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒐𝒓𝒚 works. I hope.

I should have stuck to making little robots, and not robots that can be the size of, say, a small car.

the word "can" is doing a lot of work there, this robot can transform from the size of a few feet to the size of a small (or, I suppose large) car by design with minimal structural changes.

Seriously. It’s pretty cool. I can’t post videos of it yet, but be assured they are coming.

The purpose of humanity isn't to work more, it's to work less and have more leisure. This is what sets us apart. We must develop, build, and automate away all the mindless monotony of the day so that we can choose to happily work on the hard problems of life.

On this blog you will find: Science, history, and philosophy at its core. Other areas you will likely be able to find on here are:

I've been here since 2009, and this blog since 2012. It's gone through nearly as many phases as I have gone through lifetimes. You'll find a bit of everything here and there. No regrets (lots of regrets, I was a teenager using this blog...).

My personal website can be found at macleodsawyer.com. I have a curated selection of writings there.

Use the tags below to see various areas of this blog.

Atari headquarters in Sunnyvale, California (1976)

DNX is going to have real offices soon*, and we are definitely going to be snagging some design inspiration from the old Atari HQ.

Been testing different methods of quick release mechanisms for this latest prototype. Having problems due to weight constraints (hold well with a 600lb load) and high vibrational variance. I think I've finally figured out a method that works.

Crossing my fingers.

I have spent months thinking about how to do a proper quick release system that uses the least amount of parts, can be used to disconnect the major components in less than 30 seconds, and doesn't involve parts you could lose.

I didn't have to do that, I could have just bolted it, but I want this to have that magical user experience quality that is just astoundingly and insanely simple for people to use. I want them to feel like they are in the future building their own robots that can move hundreds of pounds of materials and work autonomously in less than ten minutes of getting it out of the box.

I'm also just stupidly stubborn that I don't want to wait any longer than that to work with my own machines, and it's my dream to really build a truly artistic piece of industrial machinery that anyone can own and use.

Day by day, we are getting closer to the final manufacturing prototype.

I'm designing and developing my own robot, a first of its kind sort of robot, which required me to develop a new programming language to handle it (as you do, of course), which has required me to develop my own file format and package manager, and has now required me to develop my own IDE to write said language in because it's just so vastly different than anything else I've ever encountered.

I really need to stop making more work for myself, this project is already entering year three of its five year mission.

That's not just a slightly sly Star Trek reference there, I mapped out the basics of this project three years ago and am on a relative-ish schedule for the overall five year plan. I've made more progress in some areas than others, but overall ahead of schedule in the ways that matter.

Year five does not end in world domination, I'll instead be taking some time off then, that'll be included somewhere at the start of phase three...

I'm designing and developing my own robot, a first of its kind sort of robot, which required me to develop a new programming language to handle it (as you do, of course), which has required me to develop my own file format and package manager, and has now required me to develop my own IDE to write said language in because it's just so vastly different than anything else I've ever encountered.

I really need to stop making more work for myself, this project is already entering year three of its five year mission.

That's not just a slightly sly Star Trek reference there, I mapped out the basics of this project three years ago and am on a relative-ish schedule for the overall five year plan. I've made more progress in some areas than others, but overall ahead of schedule in the ways that matter.

I've been working relentlessly on a new robotics project for over a year. I am now up to the sixth prototype (and ninth total iteration).

I'm thinking about redesigning and rebuilding the entire form before my deadline in six months. It's a better design, but it's far different. Thankfully it will use a lot of the custom parts and components I've made, but it's an entirely different type of structure. I haven't made my decision, but either way you'll be seeing something cool about it within a few months

This will look unlike any other robot/platform I've ever built or seen. Straight out of science fiction films and concept art. Fixes quite a few issues with other similar commercial robotic offerings. Some benefits include: increased amounts of storage capabilities (and potential payload), clearance distance, power, and comes with an incentivized modular system (for well, everything), and insanely user modifiable and upgradeable. Hopeful to have a working semi-prototype fabricated this week (new metal shipment just came in, half of the support beams are cut, then to welding and component placing, and myriads of strength and stability checks), wire management will likely be dreadful but that will be more iterative in the next two months as the design gets more finalized. I'll try to keep everyone posted, I'm a bit tired of keeping all this to myself.

All 100+ structural support pieces have been cut, sanded, and ready for placement and fabrication (welding and component mounting). I am running a bit behind on my initial timeline due to my dog becoming incredibly sick (granting me the ability to put time to finish up a completionist run of Mass Effect 2: Legendary Edition to calm my nerves), but now that he is on the mend I'll be refocusing on structure and fabrication.

The custom OS is nearly complete, thanks to the internal electronic components being the same, the code will be easily (if any is needed) reconfigured to the new arrangement. Once the new structure is completed I'll be able to resume focus on the software and implement an updated pathfinding and autonomous driving system, along with a new system upgrade workflow.

Overall, I am quite pleased with the amount of work that has gone into it this past week, all things considered. Hopeful to have a working prototype ready for an outdoor road test in the next two weeks. Looking forward to showing off the technology.