The Spot Micro Is a Much Smaller, Cheaper, and DIY Version of Its Namesake

Ever since Boston Dynamics announced their Spot robot in 2016, folks have been enthralled with the machine, and with the android going up for sale earlier this year, the hype is at its peak.

If the $74,500 price tag is a bit too steep for you, mike4192 has an alternative. He has taken a popular physical design for a mini Spot-style robot, and given it the brains to move and behave in an impressively complex manner.

After building the existing robot design made by KDY0523 on Thingiverse, Mike decided to settle on using ROS (Robot Operating System) for controlling the little bot. There's a Raspberry Pi onboard running a ROS Kinetic installation, which is controlled from a separate computer also running ROS Kinetic.

Armed with a foundation designed for controlling robots, Mike developed the fundamental code required to make Spot Micro move around. It's abstracted in such a way that you don't need to delve into all the complex inverse kinematics to control it. Mike has put all of the intricacies of motion behind a state machine, allowing you to command the bot to sit, stand, or idle. You can even use the keyboard on the controller computer to steer it around.

At this time, Spot Micro has no sensory feedback. It moves its motors and assumes that it's moving where it thinks it should be. However, Mike has plans to close the feedback loop by adding an IMU and LIDAR so that the bot has awareness of its surroundings, and can dynamically perform path planning as it moves around.

You can find the source code for Mike's project on his GitHub page. Check out the video of the bot in action below!