Star Wars

[@DannyRitterman]

This is simply brilliant! Feels like it's combining a bunch of your unique learnings over the last few years and is just so elegant! Well done

[@aliasaka4416]

I Wish i could reach a similar Level of enginnering at some Point later. These creations are all genious

[@benjaminrogers9848]

The mark of a good engineer for sure

[@andreamitchell4758]

@@benjaminrogers9848 do you think James does all this on his own or is there a team helping him? I assume his sponsors are not only providing funding but also some team members with technical expertise , all these projects seem a like they would be impossible for one man to be able to create in the breakneck time frame that being a KZbin creator demands

[@andreamitchell4758]

@@RazaXML I have and he does seem to know his stuff and can very adeptly articulate and explain his work , I am just saying I think he has some help he puts out a lot of content that in and of itself is a ton of work editing is very laborious ,the financial backing is a big help but I think here must some other people helping out even if he just delegates certain parts of the project

[@benjaminrogers9848]

Patrons maybe? Otherwise no, he's just a clever guy

[@benjaminrogers9848]

So many clever little solutions! I love how you're avoiding the "Anything can be built with enough money" idea and implementing the knowledge you've gained from past projects. Loving this project!

[@Wico90YT]

The project planning is always on point. Always building on prior ideas so its easy to folow

[@catch22exodus]

The active suspension system makes its movements appear so organic, like a living animal, and combining that with the meccanum wheelbase makes it such a compelling creature to watch. It's a sort of hybrid between animal and mechanical locomotion. The combination gives the machine so much personality and character! Amazing job!

[@AJ-Palermo]

I couldn't agree more. It would be cool to add a toggle switch for organic/mechanical mode, in organic mode it would lean into the direction of motion, and in mechanical mode it would act like a car, leaning forward while braking and backward while accelerating. Or even better, add more joysticks/thumbsticks like James was saying

[@WellingtonIronman]

There was definitely an ‘ahha’ moment as you were operating the chassis. You could see with all the different motions available how you could convey emotion with the droid, which, in my opinion, is one of the most important aspects

[@FifthConcerto]

B2EMO is definitely my favorite part of Andor. I remember seeing all of the movement and thinking how difficult it would be to get all of that working in one droid. And then I thought, "I bet James could do this." Then I saw the teaser thumbnail for this video, and knew immediately what was coming. Not only did you not disappoint, your use of so many lessons from previous projects is inspiring. This is exactly what it is to be a savvy engineer.

[@zanthraxnl]

I can't believe the speed with which you're designed, developing and building all these project. Amazing stuff.

[@Matty.Hill_87]

I'm convinced he has a robot army we haven't seen that helps with all the work, it's the only explanation for how much he manages to achieve.. Maybe even the James we see is a robot the real James built 🤔😂

[@kevinkorthuis6365]

Brilliant engineering! They should be trying to hire you for the next robot build in starwars.

[@moriarteaa4692]

Yes😍

[@H34...]

Love the statement of you can do anything with a lot of money, but sometimes its just more fun, or more nessecary to make due with a cheaper solution. Looking forward to the rest of this build series. It's a very animated droid with a lot of character to its movement.

[@MakenModify]

that is one of the coolest (wheel based) motion platforms i've seen in a while :D awesome work, looking forward to this series 👍

[@johnkelly7264]

Just a thought for a new project.... How about a plain looking robot about the size of 2 shoeboxes that you could put on the floor, and it looks after itself, goes back to a charger (Kennel), can wander around the house independently, and handle a step or two. All the while learning its environment so it can be commanded to go places that it remembers. An electro mechanical version of a pet that you could decorate any way you like, or just leave it as a rectangular box. That would be so cool, I'd certainly build one!

[@anon_y_mousse]

Or you could attach a vacuum to it. Can you imagine having a guest ask you, "is your cat vacuuming?"

[@LordDragox412]

And then you sell the patent for RoboPet to Amazon, since they love things that map out people's houses as they can sell that data for big bucks.

[@baldeagle5297]

I have a book somewhere in my library on how to do most of that. It was published probably in the 80s by Tab books. I'll have to look it up sometime.

[@sonofzingo7]

Andor is incredible. If you're reading this and you haven't watched it yet, go watch it. I, a random guy on the internet, highly recommend it.

[@Adventuresincreation]

One of your best robots so far James. You have basically produced something that does the same for a fraction of the price and made it very accessible to the man/woman in the street. Well done!

[@jacobytes8720]

I'm always impressed by how you can look at props or what you have and be able to engineer your own.

[@Shenron666]

Dude, you're an amazing builder. Mecanics, modeling, 3D printing, electronics, all together to build a "TV show reverse engineered" robot. All you videos are an inspiration source, very smart and budget tips. Cheers from France.

[@Rockhopper1]

Hi James, I am the chap you met at the maker's faire at the NEC earlier this year, I was in the blue electric wheelchair. I have been wanting an off-road version for ages and considered it with my limited engineering capability. There is an off-road chair but it is mega expensive. Then you pop up with this, if you beefed it up and put a chair on top and put an electronic (drone) gyroscope thingy on it to keep the chair level this would be brilliant. Well done.

[@chromosundrift]

"You can build anything with enough money" - very interesting point and an important lesson for most of us! How to build with a big vision and a small budget is the eternal question.

[@BlameItOnGreg]

That partially driven suspension solution is great and gives a lot of nice reactive body motion for free!

[@mikeydk]

To help combat drifting on the length extension, maybe you could make some kind of brake for the gear in the middle, could be some kind of flat bevel gear where one can rotate like it does now, and one can't rotate around the center rod, but slide up and down. A RC servo can then lift the non rotating gear up to allow the other to rotate, drive the wheels to the wheelbase you want, then lower the non rotating gear down again.

[@DIYBuilds]

Awesome design. I had no idea Matt Denton was involved. I thought he was just the giant lego 3d print guy on youtube.

[@jamesbruton]

Yeah that's his day job

[@Dysiode]

Wow! It's so simple for the amount of expression it has! I can't believe how well the suspension works, for being an elastic band and a zip-tied string attached to a motor...

[@MagivaIT]

one of the best so far i think. hope you can get the wheel motors inside the wheel or above to give it more of a simitry look. i thought you would do the extender mechansim like a car jack ? you could even motorise that too if needed. the animation of this is great thus far, love it

[@BenRyherd]

Loving this build. For additional controls a head tracking unit (IMU like they use in FPV goggles) might be a nice way to control the body stuff because it'd be a little bit intuitive for you to turn your head to turn the robot's head and stand up straighter and crouch down slightly to handle the vertical growth of B2EMO. Also really impressed by you noticing that you had an extra DOF for stretching the wheelbase. Another drive motor probably could've handled that too for relatively minimal additional cost, but I appreciate the clever solution.

[@PachezZ]

using a gyro in a remote to controll leaning of the body would be another intuitive option

[@DavidThornley]

Love the vehicle! There's an error that you've sort of got away with: the wheels need switching around. The iteration in the video can yaw because the wheelbase isn't square. As you extend the chassis, the axle of each roller contacting the ground - not of the mecanum wheel per se - approaches lining up with the centre of turning. That often happens with one wheel at a time, because any motion of the chassis (with any yaw) can be viewed instantaneously as a rotation around a point, and that point will cross the axes of various rollers as the trajectory changes. With your chassis extended to place the contact patches on the corners of a square, it would rotate freely with the wheels locked, which tells you that you can't drive yaw reliably in that configuration. You'll still achieve some yaw with the video setup if you extend far enough to be square, but only because the mecanum wheels have some width, which means that the contact patch sawtooths either side of the centre line off the tangent, and hence the roller axis rotates slightly relative to the radius. Switch the wheels (front to back or side to side doesn't matter which) and it will behave much better because yaw will always be well constrained. When I make a mecanum wheelbase, my mental checklist includes "if the wheels are braked, does it definitely constrain translation and rotation of the chassis?" You can set the servos/motors to station holding and feel how much constraint you've got. I haven't investigated the specific effects of canting a mecanum off the vertical as happens with your suspension. It will certainly distort the contact kinetics, but I don't know how significantly. How are you generating your rollers? I have a CAD construct that does it fairly simply if you're interested.

[@DeadlyAssets]

Absolutely Amazing! Your skill and workarounds for seemingly difficult problems that you make look easy & I know from trying to work out solutions (mine purely in code) leave me awe-struck by your elegant & straightforward solutions. I applaud you, if I had half your skillset I would have built an exoskeleton for my paralysed left arm & be working on ways to help my dog (the second one to get Degenerative Myelopathy, the first passed about 15+ years ago after having his back legs on wheels for a year until he was ready to go on his final adventure) I know there must be a more elegant solution easier for both us to get her into and her to use when she gets to the point she can't carry her own weight on her back legs anymore, she is already dragging her knuckles as she walks. After watching this build, something based around this possibly could even allow her to crouch to do her business. Sorry, I'm rambling, but your builds always spur me on to try to design something, build it and see what happens. If I was only fitter & wasn't so exhausted all the time, I would have been inspired by your channel years ago & wouldn't have so many piles of shame sitting around my home, including 3 FDM printers that need mending (2 are just clogged nozzles I'm pretty sure) my ill health, unfortunately, holds me up & my meds while allowing me to function, keep my concentration very short. Watching your channel always amazes & keeps me entertained, whilst inspiring new ideas or sometimes allowing me to revisit old ideas from a new angle! Keep it up!

[@Code018]

I haven't been this excited about a build since you started open dog. I love how you simplified the liner requirements this way. Really appreciate you minding the budget on this one.

[@10p6]

Much cooler than I thought it was going to be. I think you should reverse the wheel units though, with the motors on the inside (as opposed to outside now) to give a longer stance.

[@jamesbruton]

I was going to, but that puts more twist force on the suspension arms so I turned it around

[@marklr5716]

14:30 James that's easily one of the coolest things you've ever built..

[@willierants5880]

Hope we get back to this build at some point.

[@Mireaze]

This is the first time Ive even heard of Andor, good job with that marketing Disney 👍

[@yodaco]

That'll be because, and I hate having to say this but, it is terribly weak by comparison to other StarWars series out there.

[@ATLAS-_-.]

I can't tell if you're joking or not, Disney announced it clear back in December of 2020 and then started pushing marketing since May maybe even earlier.

[@lamarrotems]

First time here too

[@Mireaze]

@@ATLAS-_-. nope, not joking

[@Stoneman06660]

The movement of this robot is fantastic and clearly the result of years of honing your skills with CAD and code. Can't wait to see how it turns out!

[@melisboekje3836]

The coolest thing about these projects/design’s is that they are fully repair,recyclable,salvageable.

[@BadPractices]

James, you are an absolute machine. I aspire to be as productive as you.

[@weirdboyjim]

I really like the way you built the platform, the sprung parallelograms coupled with the method of extension are a great cost saving!

[@patprop74]

James, I'm speechless! Amazing design.

[@joshuasmith2450]

Pretty sure the mecanum wheels are mounted backwards, can cause some bumpiness on hard ground

[@kyleclinton6261]

Can't wait to see this completed... I was just thinking yesterday that I would love to build this... Thanks James for doing all the hard work!!!

[@ChrisB...]

I think you may have something special here. The motion feels like ASMR, so elegant and hypnotic! Amazing work as usual.

[@hoodio]

the sheer amount of 3d printed plastic in this guys attic is insane, but awesome channel

[@macmangan]

This is the most exciting build. Will jump on your patreon as this one I can’t wait to try and build! Excited for the progress!!!

[@Brandon-zo9ly]

This is fantastic. Looks like it would be a good base for the Really Useful Robot.

[@niklasw1631]

If you turn the suspension 90 degrees so that the link arms point in the forward and backward axis, the same as the radial wheel axis, then it would eliminate the issue with the feet getting closer. It would also be easier to compensate the wheel body to always be parallel to the ground. Just a suggestion.

[@markimusprime3]

I'm glad you're doing the B2, I like that robot.

[@robjchristopher]

Another brilliant build - I really like your way of explaining the decisions you make and how you bring it all together. Great stuff!

[@akaHarvesteR]

A new star wars droid build! This makes me so happy :D I found this channel by the BB8 builds, and to me all the star wars builds (and hulkbuster) were your best projects. Something about how you solve problems when you have very little information about the actual prop droid, the super clever mechanisms to reproduce all those motion features, it's brilliant stuff. Can't wait for the rest of this build series.

[@Fireheart318]

I’d absolutely LOVE IT if you made a T-180 racecar from the movie, Speed Racer! T-180s are basically jet cars with swerve-drive wheels, which allows them to point their jet engines in any direction without losing wheel grip, effectively double-dipping on acceleration, braking, and steering. The cars in the movie are presumably gas-powered, but I’d imagine an electric version would use in-hub electric wheel motors, an EDF as the jet engine, and continuous servos for steering, but I could be completely wrong here. Also, bonus points if you can get it to jump like in the movie!

[@Braunquadro]

It is amazing how fast you build your Robots.

[@danielf3623]

Feels like you could put a small detent on the back of those racks to soft lock the wheels in max and min wheelbase modes so it doesn't drift so much while driving. That way their flexibility works to your advantage.

[@jamesbruton]

Good idea!

[@victortenma5512]

The organic movement is sick

[@rix0r222]

This is very impressive. Love the suspension design.

[@minibigs5259]

Simultaneously an oldskoolbruton and newwavebruton in one episode!

[@pauljaggers402]

I think this is your best project so far. I love the suspension and movement of it.

[@bodoque_csm]

very clever work reducing the amount of motors!

[@piraterubberduck6056]

The movement looks smooth. I like the use of ideas and parts from previous projects to make this work, it carries on the story we are following along with you. Looking forward to the next video.

[@bhaskaranupam2958]

You always manage to Enslave me to these videos with the precise details and lucid explanations regarding the engineering behind these projects... I WISH I COULD BE YOUR PRODIGY... Love and Respect from India 🇮🇳

[@ed.puckett]

This is one of my favorites of your recent projects. Thank you for your videos!

[@tylervanprooyen1848]

You should use field oriented drive, and also an accelerometer to drive the upper section forward when taking off. It will give you quite an organic look without having to manually move it

[@Bakamoichigei]

Excellent work! I've been wanting to work on a mecanum wheel robot for such a long time, hopefully I'll get around to it after my move! When you posted that picture the other day and asked "Which Star Wars droid..." I couldn't think of one, but then last night when I was catching up on Andor I was like "OHHHHH." 🤣

[@PhilWaud]

Great video, looking forward to seeing how it pans out. This is the James Bruton that we all love! Its reminded me to check out Andor too!

[@rohankataram5291]

I do FRC robotics and it’s so cool seeing engineering concepts being used(we use mecanum drives as well as 4 bar linkages

[@pieterpretorius1014]

i'd imagine how a chassis like this would work on a FRC or FTC playing field. the biggest limitation is the amount of motor that could be used on the rev robot control system or what ever FRC uses now. the last time i was part of an FRC team was back in 2008 when the robots still used the old PICAXE controllers

[@MakerMindset]

I want to give you a suggestion to simplify the controls. You could install a motion/acceleration sensor that would lean the droid forward if it felt that the droid was accelerating forward or if it was going uphill. It could also lean the droid backward if it sensed that the droid was going downhill or if the droid was breaking. The same would go for the sideways motion. This would make the droid's motion look much more organic and would be one less control for you to worry about.

[@tobyCornish]

I haven't seen andor, but your barebones chassis has a lot of personality already

[@Hookmodo]

Very excited for this series! Thanks James!

[@thebushyone]

Fantastic project, don't take this the wrong way James, but this kind of project is what got me hooked on your channel in the first place. Something a bit more pop culture, well maybe just Star Wars.👍

[@frollard]

The intelligent mixing seems a great route; Seems it would really benefit from some animator prowess; If mixing lean with direction of travel, using the concepts of anticipation and followthrough, getting the lean 'momentum' built before applying wheel power could add a lot of life to the motion. Same with braking; lean back anticipating the deceleration, then applying motor power. It would add significant latency so the controls would be tougher to pilot precisely but I'm sure like any system with predictable 'inertia' it could be smooth. Very very cool project, and looking foward to seeing the rest! I really want to build one now!

[@Matty.Hill_87]

This is going to be such a cool project, I can't wait to see how this turns out

[@LuckyX0182]

Hats off to you James, this is simply astonishing

[@aliasaka4416]

Just fascinating how fast you built Things and make them Work!

[@jamesbruton]

Thanks!

[@ronald7378]

Did you ever get to finish this build? I cant find any follow up videos to this one.

[@ArnaudMEURET]

This semi-passive suspension is the real star of this model ! The mecanum wheels are mere sidekicks. 😅

[@philb8437]

This is so rad ! Very cool robot base !

[@kossmonaut]

this channel is so over my head, but i love it

[@slimknight_]

Great Stuff! Along with the scale comments youve made, you could put the motors towards the centers of each side to get a wider wheel base considering it is tall as well.

[@amirhm6459]

wow the extender system is genious

[@SpacedHawk]

I knew Matt Denton already. I knew he was good at building droids and stuff… But I didn’t know he was involved with the building of the actual droids used in the films! 🤯

[@SpacedHawk]

This is spam^

[@Cross_Bones.]

Any updates on this robot? Really interested In this build

[@tonym6937]

I like it a lot, but I believe the mecanum wheels are more normally used with the angled rollers swapped round the other way (they are on the B2). As you currently have it, the axis of the rollers (at the point where they contact the ground) are all aligned with the centre of the robot (like a needle roller thrust bearing) - this can allow the whole robot to freely rotate about its centre. If the wheels are swapped (i.e. swap left front with right front and left rear with right rear) so the 45deg rollers go in the other orientation (in relation to that wheel's axis), the roller axis at the points where they contact the ground will not be aligned with the robot centreline (they'll now be orientated tangentially to a circle) so they will be able to resist rotation about the robot's vertical axis.

[@DavidThornley]

I didn't scroll down far enough. Should I delete my comment so there's less to read, or leave it there for overall signal strength? Shame about the spam reply you got :/.

[@beefy256]

Amazing design! Can't wait to see this whole series!

[@leightonwestbury92]

i think this has to be my most favourite of your robot builds yet, and while it might not be designed exactly as the original may have been, your design is in the very least just as effective, i wouldn't be surprised if the original builders looked at this and thought why didn't we think of that or we should've done that bit like that ..........in my opinion your build is possibly more efficient

[@praeclarum]

You've outdone yourself. Great work.

[@piconano]

I like your solution and design. I'll wait for you to upload the final cad files. Then I can scale it to the gearmotors I already have collecting dust. I'll be using springs instead of bungee cord and no servos. It's a very nice independent suspension as is.

[@HenningAndersen]

This looks really nice! It moves very nice with the ability to lean, maybe better than the original

[@GMoney-B]

This is amazing. I would love to build a B2emo myself.

[@pflagerquist3071]

Just some advice from someone who has used hobby meacanums in the past, you might want to add bearings to the rollers. This is because in my experience the added friction makes the wheels less accurate.

[@Wico90YT]

Your droid builds are always the best. I can't remember if you have already, but a custom SW inspired droid would be fun to see

[@mattmurphy7030]

God this guy is an absolute genius

[@lupusk9productions]

can't wait for this thing to be finished! so cool great job!

[@thewatersavior]

Awesome.. Will be interesting to see how much of a load it can using that chassis open\close function - seems like you could use it to lift and move objects around the floor without an arm

[@Metroyed]

You could put some scroll wheels on the sholders of your controller. Like how the Radiomaster Zorro transmitter is configured.

[@SimonBauer7]

the new andor droid was the most down to earth one based ob the movement yet of all the star wars droids

[@FollowNdFeel]

NICE! Back to droid making. I have subbed to your channel a bit but you went off into other subjects I am much less interested in. Glad to see you drop this.

[@masonl87]

This is one of the coolest bots you've built in quite some time. Looking *very* forward to you finishing it. As soon as I saw this bot in Andor, I knew someone would decide "yup, that has to be real now". Bravo.

[@ElectraFlarefire]

Very nice indeed and some elegant solutions.

[@mhbjarkistef]

I'm incredibly hyped for this series! :D

[@danielhems1457]

Love it James ! I discovered you when you were building bb8. I really enjoyed the more detailed video's back in the days ... Thanks for your always amazing content ! ♥️

[@SimonPlatten]

Excellent work, I am very impressed with your work and what you have achieved.

[@JohnnyWednesday]

Perhaps you could code the head so it always tilts in the opposite direction to the vector of travel, then 'catches' up to the vertical after a moment - same again for slowing down - it'll look great :D

[@karelpgbr]

Ghost Recon Breakpoint has these types of wheels on their Sentinel/Wolf drones too

[@AlbertDongler]

Wow! very impressive work and making it open source. Another wow! :-)

[@PachezZ]

Might be worth trying Superscale2020 system used in RC trucks for that "suspension" - it simulates the real mass in these trucks to get realistic movement of suspension...

[@chubbyzombie666]

BRILLIANT!!! Keep it coming.