Sea Perch ROV
Date: 1997
Hardware License: CC BY v3.0
Software License: N/A
The Sea Perch ROV started out as a project
description in the spiral-bound book, Build Your Own
Underwater Robot and Other Wet Projects by Harry Bohm
and Vickie Jensen. Later, Professor Thomas Consi of MIT
discovered the Sea Perch design and incorporated it into
his Ocean Engineering Program curriculum. The MIT
project took the original idea and turned it into a simpler
and cheaper ROV. MIT also developed parts lists and build
manuals for the CC-licensed project. MIT’s project was
partially funded by the Office of Naval Research, who
helped adopt the Sea Perch design as part of a
partnership with the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers (SNAME). Through that program, the
design was developed into a kit and a contest managed by the Association of Unmanned Vehicle Systems
International Foundation. Over 50,000 students have participated so far, perhaps making this the most widespread
free hardware design for a robot ever created. For more information, see the ONR Sea Perch website.
The Sea Perch is a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) rather than a true autonomous robot, but the
open design can be (and has been) modified to be fully
autonomous by the user if desired. Sea Perch kits are available
for $143 USD.
US Navy photo by
John F. Williams
Get the design: http://seaperch.mit.edu/
Buy a kit: www.seaperch.org/
Open PINO Platform Humanoid Robot
Date: 1999
Hardware License: GNU FDL
Software License: GNU GPL
Photo by
Steve Rainwater
The Open PINO project was an attempt by Japanese
research organizations to establish a freely licensed,
standardized humanoid robot platform suitable for research
and collaboration. The project started in 1999, with
prototypes shown as early as 2000. The robot was
72 cm tall, had 26 degrees of freedom, and weighed
4. 6 kg. It could dynamically balance and walk. The control
software was based on genetic algorithms. The chassis,
boards, and software were released under GPL or FDL
licenses. The project description contained this information:
Get the design: www.sbi.jp/symbio/symbio/ (password from ERATO required)
Buy a complete PINO version 2: www.zmp.co.jp/e_html/products_pino.html
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