Electronics and software for high performance motor drives for robotics: ODrive - Oskar Weigl

Talk from the IROS 2021 workshop:
From gears to direct drive: Recent trends and opportunities in actuation
Website: https://www.ram.eemcs.utwente.nl/gear...

Abstract:
Basic drives for brushless motors can be inexpensive, but advanced drives that are suitable for robotics have historically been very expensive, leaving many companies, hobbyists and researchers no option other than to build their own. With the ODrive we hope to put an end to this reinventing of the wheel, as we offer a cost effective and highly customizable brushless servo drive. I will present the origin story of ODrive Robotics, our focus on making robotics accessible; how it went from a personal project to a community oriented project to a commercial endeavour.

Sharing our perspective on the emerging market of more affordable robotic solutions, we will look at who builds cost effective robots today, what are some interesting applications, and what we think the future trends are. I will also share insight into some of the design decisions, including tradeoffs between cost, reliability, performance and time to market: at the system, hardware and software level. We will also look at some of the tools we made along the way to help accelerate the development velocity of both ourselves and the developers who use ODrive. I will share some lessons learned on this journey, some challenges we faced, and what we might have done differently if we were to do it again; as well as what our plans are for the future.