Collection of notes to help deepen understanding around micro controllers and reasons Pollen made to develop a system away from a ROS-Arduino m/c system

PROS

• Incorporate pyluos libraries and not have to start from scratch on how to manipulate certain systems/mechanical design

• Microservices/API architecture ⇒ into a single system image

  

• Objects library to leverage for Reachy project vs. wrangling ROS ⇒ faster development

• Will be able to integrate future Reachy applications from other users easily

CONS

• Surface-mount PCB production (Risk: boards breaking from production)
• Not off-the-shelf
• Even if modularization for Luos hardware/software components, will need to get a proper breakout board to make any off-the-shelf hardware compatible
• Many drivers/parts that are custom boards to make sensors, motors Luos compatible ⇒ Quantify lead times if we decide to build from the ground up

Neutral / Other

• Dialog around this system that was designed for comms/modularity/scaleability (Pollen reasons for developing their own system ⇒ industrial applications) are good learning opportunities for understanding the gap they were trying to bridge
• May actually help us understand the ROS/Arduino gaps that Pollen was trying to bridge with their system

Questions

1. What types of complexities are considered in Reachy that may not be relevant to us?

2. What added functions does a LUOS system give us that can't be achievable today with off-the-shelf?

3. What functions do we want to incorporate that make Reachy Reachy as opposed to another robot that can do defined goals?

4. If Reachy is open-sourced, is there a way to get the best of both worlds on the firmware side with off-the-shelf parts? Knowledge gap. (Reference: https://docs.luos.io/pages/low/electronic-design.html for links to compatible MCUs by request)

   • Answered with 2 below references
     • For electronic design to be Luos compatible, required MCU (check with Pollen or request the unpublished list of compatible MCUs), and connector for Robus cable for comms (https://octopart.com/df11-8dp-2ds(24)-hirose-39521447)
     • Unpublished breakout board that makes any board compatible: 'a small add-on board to make any board compatible with Luos (https://github.com/Luos-io/Examples/tree/master/Projects)
   • Would https://github.com/Luos-io/LuosHAL help here?
   • Any working examples of LUOS with other than Dynamixel?
   • Any working examples of Dynamixel with other than LUOS?

5. Is there advantages to using Robus, Luos' communication technology?

   Clear Dependency. Both a network and power management system. Without Robus, we don't have Luos.