Open Source Robot Dog, Kickstarter, and Home Robots

Sense Think Act Podcast

In this episode, Audrow Nash speaks to Afreez Gan, who is the founder and CEO of MangDang; MangDang is a Chinese startup that makes Minipupper, an open source robot dog that uses the Robot Operating System (ROS). Minipupper was inspired by and built with lessons learned from the Stanford Pupper, an open source robot dog. In this interview, Afreez speaks about Minipupper’s hardware, software, and documentation, about manufacturing Minipupper, and about his eventual goal of building a home robot dog.
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EPISODE LINKS:
– Afreez’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/afreez–gan–b606615/}
– MangDang’s website: https://www.mangdang.net/}
– Minipupper’s Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/336477435/mini–pupper–open–sourceros–robot–dog–kit}
– MangDang’s Github: https://github.com/mangdangroboticsclub}
PODCAST INFO:
– Podcast website: https://sensethinkact.com}
– Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/sense–think–act/id1582090036}
– Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/52wK4oMDvgijRk6E82tC5d}
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– Full episodes: https://www.youtube.com/c/SenseThinkActPodcast}
– Clips: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChfnCpNwZzYtZ32J–pZvNDg}
OUTLINE:
– (0:00:00) Start
– (0:01:07) Introduction
– (0:04:21) Origin of Mini Pupper
– (0:11:27) Mini Pupper’s hardware
– (0:22:59) Minipupper’s software
– (0:29:08) Minipupper for education
– (0:35:19) Making high quality documentation
– (0:39:03) Using ROS 1
– (0:41:57) Assembling Minipupper
– (0:44:17) The challenges of scaling up manufacturing
– (0:54:24) Kickstarter campaign
– (1:05:22) Future of Minipupper
– (1:10:41) Consumer robot dog
– (1:16:17) Manufacturing in China
– (1:20:18) Funding
– (1:24:38) Future of robotics
– (1:26:23) Links
SOCIAL:
– Twitter: https://twitter.com/sense_think_act}
– Discourse: https://discourse.ros.org/c/sensethinkact/71}