The document discusses the iCub robot project, an open-source humanoid robot that costs €200,000 to build. It provides an overview of the iCub specifications and licensing, comparing it to other open hardware projects like Arduino, RepRap, and the Global Village Construction Set. While the iCub design is publicly available under open-source licenses, it is noted that the licensing and documentation of hardware presents unique challenges compared to software.

1. Free Robotics Paul Fitzpatrick

2. Outline The iCub: a Free Robot that costs € 200,000

3. Freedom Defined: the OSHW definition

4. How does the iCub stack up?

5. Other open hardware projects Arduino, RepRap, Global Village Construction Set Patents and copyright

6. How roboticists and OSHW can help each other Talk is personal opinion, not that of IIT or Robot Rebuilt

7. iCub http://icub.org

8. About the iCub Scale: 4-year old infant

9. 53 degrees of freedom (7 per arm, 9 per hand, 6 in head, 3 in torso, 6 per leg)

10. Off-board power, computation; on-board PC104 card, micro-controllers

11. Tendon driven joints for shoulder, hand

12. Stereo cameras, microphones, force/torque sensors, gyros

13. V1.2: sensorized fingertips, palms (108 taxels)

14. iCubs

15. Free? You can get one built € 200,000 (plus customs etc)

16. 21-23 iCubs built so far Free software Publicly archived; OSI-approved license (LGPL) Free hardware designs Publicly archived; OSI-approved license (GPL) License approved for software, not hardware

17. Lots of discussions going on about how to build good free licenses for hardware

18. Why freedom helps Full-body humanoids are hugely complicated and expensive to develop

19. An open process is an enormous simplifier Secrecy is lossy

20. Hard to do across loosely collaborating institutions

21. Secrecy is complicated, bureaucratic

22. Secrecy is costly For loose collaborations across space and time, an open process wins hands-down

23. Free licenses useful for setting trusted ground rules

24. Hardware vs software Good, well-understood free licenses exist for software Copyright based The same is not true for hardware Often people borrow software or media licenses

25. But law related to hardware is very different e.g. regulated by patents, not copyright

26. Different types of hardware have different legal issues A lot of thinking about this happening right now e.g. TAPR Open Hardware License

27. OSHW definition Open Source Hardware Statement of Principles and Definition is under development by community http://freedomdefined.org/OSHW Not a license. A standard by which to evaluate licenses.

28. Modeled after the Debian Free Software Guidelines.

29. New, still being hammered out (v1.0 was released Feb. 2011)

30. “ Open Source Hardware (OSHW) is: a term for tangible artifacts – machines, devices, or other physical things –

31. whose design has been released to the public in such a way that anyone can make, modify, distribute, and use those things.”

32. OSHW terms (v1.0) Documentation Design files must be released

33. In preferred format for making changes, e.g. original CAD Scope Must be clear what portion of design is covered by license Necessary software Any software required for operation must be released under OSI-approved license, or specified well for implementation by others Derived works Allow: manufacture, sale, distribution under same license, use, modification of designs and products built from them, etc.

34. OSHW terms (v1.0) Free redistribution No restriction or royalty or fee for selling or giving away the designs or modified versions of designs Attribution May be required; change in branding for modified versions may be required No discrimination Against persons or groups

35. Against fields of endeavor

36. OSHW terms (v1.0) Distribution of license Rights granted are automatically extended to recipient when the work is redistributed Not specific to product Individual parts of a design can be used and distributed without grief No restriction on other hardware or software e.g. can't insist hardware be used only with free software Technology neutral

37. So is the iCub free? Yes! Maybe! GPL-licensed, and GPL meets spirit of OSHW...

38. … depending on how you read it. Needs a rewrite for hardware (TAPR, Hardware Design Public License v0.04) A bit like free software a decade ago Good faith effort: have CAD files, layouts, BOM, wiki, making-of videos, …

39. More importantly, public repository is used internally

40. But it takes a lot of documentation to build a humanoid!

41. But is everything there? Probably not. And it is messy. Needs pressure from 3rd-party implementors Also: v1.2 has a patent application on tactile skin