Bespoke Robot Society:About

Mission of the Bespoke Robot Society

Draft mission statement:

• To build automatons, not remote controlled toys.
• To go beyond toy examples and enable real-world use cases.
• To empower members to design and build custom, low-cost robots.
• To lower the barrier of entry for robotics to nothing.

The mission statement will be supported with a list of BRS namespaced "rants" as I get around to writing them.

• Bespoke_Robot_Society:Battlebots_Are_Not_Robots
• Bespoke_Robot_Society:Beyond_Toys
• Bespoke_Robot_Society:Cheap_Stuff_Works
• Bespoke_Robot_Society:Toddler_Testing
• Bespoke_Robot_Society:Give_Them_Away_For_Free

Core Competencies

The Core Competencies of BRS are the individual skills required to go from a pile of stuff to a robot that is completing a task.

The Society views these competencies as the "tech tree" of building a robot, and our goal is to provide step-by-step instructions to completing each task, or open-source methods to outsource that task.

• 3D Printing - crucial to the cheap and bespoke elements of our robots.
• Electronics - This includes breadboards and circuits themselves, an endless list of modules and components that robots require, soldering, and custom printed circuit boards.
• Mechanics and Fabrication - the mechanical engineering behind motion systems, determining safety factors, etc, as well as the use of tools to create parts.
• Software - writing and using computer programs.
• Operating Systems - Systems administration as it pertains to robots, namely Linux and Robot Operating System (ROS).

Basic Structure of Bespoke Robot Society

Hi, John here. The Bespoke Robot Society is still a very loosely organized group, and I want to nudge that slightly towards structure with the introduction of this wiki.

It may seem odd to have first-person authorship of a wiki article like this. It's because I am the present Dictator, and until we outgrow that, I am basically personally speaking on behalf of The Society. Wiki links in the Bespoke_Robot_Society namespace are meant to be about the wiki project and The Society itself, so this side of the wiki may be a bit editorialized until we have more contributors.

I see the structure to the group forming along four avenues:

• The BRS Wiki, which you are now reading.
• The BRS Discord, where members chit-chat, share streams of consciousness, or discuss things in real-time.
• The BRS Github organization, where we curate code for public release.
• The BRS mailing list, to ensure "less online" members and interested folks can receive intermittent updates on The Society's business.

Purpose and use of BRS Wiki

This is our most public outreach. The main namespace (i.e. the primary articles) are viewable by anyone, and should cover any topic in our core competencies. The intent is that live demos will generate page views for specific robots, and every step of assembly or skill required will be available as BRS Wiki links.

There's nothing wrong with linking to other resources on say soldering or using PCB development tools, but the entire "tech tree" (Or the files to download / things to buy to bypass it) should be fully enumerated within our wiki.

Becoming a contributor on the wiki is a sign of being an editorial or secretarial contributor to The Society. Turning good conversations or questions asked and answered into searchable, authoritative articles takes a lot of work. It may seem like the technical work is the primary value, but the state of robotics today makes it clear that technical work which is hidden, unsearchable, or unintelligible is of no value to anyone that doesn't have their hands on it. BRS should view the editors and presenters of technical knowledge as equals to technical contributors.

Purpose and use of the Discord

Discord is "fun" and gets people notified when there is ongoing conversation. ...That is, unless someone doesn't have it on their phone, or only logs in occasionally, or if they mute the server and forget to ever return to it.

So I have no idea what the correct use of Discord is - the number of online users is meaningless in terms of knowing who will actually see your messages. It's also barely searchable, so good conversations can be lost. I would think of Discord similar to IRC servers of old: save/pin/bookmark the good ideas that come by, and if they truly warrant preservation, get it onto a different platform (i.e. the Wiki)

Purpose and use of Github

Github has the unique position of being the single centralized source for the internet's use of the decentralized version management protocol, git. At least it's free, but don't forget things like gitea or similar, even simpler tools when sharing code around. Bespoke doesn't mean Paranoid, but it also certainly doesn't mean "ignore how it works and use what everyone else does".

Joining the BRS organization on github is a mark of being a technical contributor to The Society. Pull requests are the polite way to make your code public-facing, so that some discussion can occur before changes become authoritative.

Purpose of the Mailing List

Presently, there isn't one. But over the coming months, I'll endeavor to get a positive response out of everyone who has ever crossed paths with The Society and try and get an email out of them. A monthly update of all of our progress, probably summarizing the meeting and any good discussion on the Discord, is a decent enough start.

Structure of Membership

For the time being, Bespoke Robot Society has no plans to charge dues, become a legal entity of any sort, or limit membership to people with certain credentials.

Are we affiliated with NASA? No; BRS started based on conversations behind the gate at Kennedy Space Center, and many people with NASA affiliations played small and large parts to create and shape the group. But there are also pioneer members who are far-flung across the planet and not NASA affiliated at all. I don't think we can formalize the group in a way that excludes these genuine members.

Until we formalize even further, I suggest that members examine these roles and select the one that fits them best based on their scope of participation -

• Fellow - The highest rank achievable in any formal Society, for broad and continuous contributions to the Society's goals.
• Honorary Fellow - an awarded rank for contributors to the field of robotics which greatly contribute to the ideals The Society upholds.
• Member for Life and Fellow Emeritus - For those who have departed from Society activities but continue to carry our mission with them in their heart.
• Member - Anyone currently contributing along any venue towards The Society's mission.
• Associate Member or Student Member - For folks studying robotics and interested in the Society's goals, but don't feel that they have personally furthered our purpose in the world through their efforts (yet).