Newton Robot Capstone Project

The Newton Project was an interdisciplinary capstone project aimed at designing and developing an accessible, modular and cost-effective quadruped robotic platform. The primary objective was lowering the barrier of entry for students, hobbyists and researchers interested in the field of legged locomotion and more advanced robotics, beyond the level of Arduino and other entry-level platforms.

In practical terms, the project aimed to deliver a fully functional quadruped robot with 12 degrees of freedom, 3D-printable parts, cheap and cost-effective electronics, and a high interchangeability of components, as well as a software platform for a reinforcement learning system. The project was done in a team of 7 engineering students from different backgrounds and majors.

My role in the team was as the main designer for the electrical, hardware and firmware system, with iterative testing and integration of many motors, drivers and encoder systems, a large amount of wiring, assembly and soldering, as well as a wide use of communication protocols and low-level embedded software. This was also conducted in parallel with the rest of the team, from the mechanical design to the software and RL implementation.