How Would one build a robotic backpack?

Question

first off i'm not mechanically inclined and i don't intead on actually building one. i'm asking out of curiosity. i've tried searching around and to my knowledge no one has built one. I think if someone were to build one it would do very well. it could even be branched out into suitcases dog carriers etc.

Answer 1

Hmmm.. this would be interesting, but slightly impractical because it's pretty much easier just to carry a backpack :P....

I think one of the main challanges with making a robotic backpack would be the way it navigates, and how it distinguishes you between any other person (to follow you).

This could prove to be very difficult because, yes, there are a few ways you could do it but it would take a lot of time and effort. You could program it to recognise your.... Blue pants, and follow them. But at the same time it would be needing to avoid obstacles in front of, and around it. It could also get confused and follow someone else wearing blue pants.

I guess you could some how have some sort of signaling device you're wearing and it hears/sees/recognises it in some way and follows that.

Your next challenge is it's form of mobility. Legs are too complex and difficult to master, so wheels would probably be the way to go.

The problem with the whole "proximity alarm" thing, is that if it's watching you, and using something like a rader gun, timing the distance between when it fires the laser to when it recieves it back to judge it's distance from you, it would be easily confused because your legs are moving closer and farther away from it as you're walking, so the distance from you that it thinks it is would be jaggered and no doubt misjudged, so it would be very jittery in trying to stay a certain distance away from you.

All in all, I don't really think it's worth the trouble of making one... hehe, but I'll admit I would love to have a robotic container to haul everything for me ^^

:edit:

Yeah, stairs would be quite difficult. Legs would be more practical for stairs, sort of, depending on how they are designed, but bad for everything else. (they are just too hard to get right xD)

A wheel you could design to cope with stairs would have to be shaped something like... the axle, with like... prong sort of things coming off it? so it would almost look like a bike wheel, without the rim. So it'd be the middle bit of the wheel with all the spokes coming off it (but not so many.)

Answer 2

Reminds me of when my sister made backpacks for dogs (so they would carry their own food on those long ones).

But maybe that's your start - a robotic dog to carry your book bag. It could follow RFID tags in your shoes!

Answer 3

Tell me what you expect this thing to do, aside from just sitting on your back?

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