Robotics kit / platform recommendations

[Adam D Bachman]

Hey Node folks, 

Does anyone have a recommended kit or platform or bill of materials for getting into robotics w/ the Arduino / other Arduino-compatible platform? My budget is up to $200 and I'm interested in making things move on their own, autonomy preferred. Have you had good experiences with a particular store or product? Bad experiences? Any recommendations you feel qualified to make would be helpful.

Related question, does anyone have any experience re-purposing mechanical toys for robotics? RC Cars, motorized things, robots that are not-already-intelligent, etc. Is that worth digging into or is it better to skip straight to purpose-built robotics hardware?

- Adam B.

[Robert Blake]

You should talk to Eric Mooney, he's been working on coupling arduinos
to motors for some time now in his personal projects.

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[Steven Stowell]

Miles Pekala at the Baltimore Hackerspace is a paid expert at cheap robotics, works on it for his day job.  Actually, you might take a field trip out to BH to check out what they do.   I think you'll find it inspiring.   I think I heard some noise from MICA in this area, and I'm probing around next week on campus, and will let you know.

Steve

[Eric Mooney]

Hey Adam,

Yes, I am playing with Arduino based autonomous vehicles and am having allot of fun with it. I'm using an Arduino Uno, motor shield, and servos to mount ultrasonic distance sensors. I'm not too sure what my end result is though. It's more of an exercise in learning how to use the motor shield. I'd be happy to show you what I've been working on if you want to swing by our openHack night on Wednesday nights here at Baltimore Hackerspace. We can do a google hangout if you wanted to. Just let me know if you want to hook up. 

Eric

[Todd Blatt]

For the robot petting zoo at makerbot, we used arduino and polulo motor controllers for 3 of the 4 species. and it wasn't so bad.

Todd Blatt
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@tblatt on twitter
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[Sean Carton]

Hi!

MICA may have been "sniffing around" robotics, but we've been using them here at UB in our classes already. We started this past summer with our Cyber Discovery Camp (videos of the camp here: http://cd3c.org/) and have continued throughout the Fall semester with some freshman classes. We used Boe-Bots from Parallax (http://bit.ly/hgQGmB) which, while they're not Arduino based, are very forgiving and super easy to learn to program since they're based around the BASIC Stamp 2 board which uses a simplified version of BASIC. It's easy enough to learn that we had philosophy professors and lawyers writing simple "navigate around the cup" programs in about an hour.

If you want a simple way to get started with an Arduino-based bot for about $200, MAKE sells a kit (http://www.makershed.com/MAKE_Rovera_4w_Ardunio_Robot_Kit_p/msrob4w.htm) for $194.99. I haven't played with this one myself, but it looks like it comes with everything and fits your budget.

Good luck!

Sean
---------------------------------------------------------
Sean Carton, DCD
Director
Center for Digital Communication, Commerce, and Culture
University of Baltimore
BC437
office: 410-837-6675
mobile: 410-271-7062
twitter: @ubcd3c

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[Gary Mauler]

I use the Boebots  with 7th graders.  they can also get a program going in about 1 hour!

And it comes  Arduino ready.

We sell them at the national electronics museum.

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[Sean Carton]

I always figured that 7th graders were at least as smart as lawyers! :)

I really want to get down to your museum some time! Do you do any programs with college kids?

Sean

---------------------------------------------------------
Sean Carton, DCD
Director
Center for Digital Communication, Commerce, and Culture
University of Baltimore
BC437
office: 410-837-6675
mobile: 410-271-7062
twitter: @ubcd3c

From: Gary Mauler <ga...@maulers.net<mailto:ga...@maulers.net>>
Reply-To: "baltimore-no...@googlegroups.com<mailto:baltimore-no...@googlegroups.com>" <baltimore-no...@googlegroups.com<mailto:baltimore-no...@googlegroups.com>>
Date: Thursday, December 6, 2012 8:17 AM
To: "baltimore-no...@googlegroups.com<mailto:baltimore-no...@googlegroups.com>" <baltimore-no...@googlegroups.com<mailto:baltimore-no...@googlegroups.com>>
Subject: Re: Robotics kit / platform recommendations


I use the Boebots with 7th graders. they can also get a program going in about 1 hour!

And it comes Arduino ready.

We sell them at the national electronics museum.

On Dec 6, 2012 8:11 AM, "Sean Carton" <sca...@ubalt.edu<mailto:sca...@ubalt.edu>> wrote:
Hi!

MICA may have been "sniffing around" robotics, but we've been using them here at UB in our classes already. We started this past summer with our Cyber Discovery Camp (videos of the camp here: http://cd3c.org/) and have continued throughout the Fall semester with some freshman classes. We used Boe-Bots from Parallax (http://bit.ly/hgQGmB) which, while they're not Arduino based, are very forgiving and super easy to learn to program since they're based around the BASIC Stamp 2 board which uses a simplified version of BASIC. It's easy enough to learn that we had philosophy professors and lawyers writing simple "navigate around the cup" programs in about an hour.

If you want a simple way to get started with an Arduino-based bot for about $200, MAKE sells a kit (http://www.makershed.com/MAKE_Rovera_4w_Ardunio_Robot_Kit_p/msrob4w.htm) for $194.99. I haven't played with this one myself, but it looks like it comes with everything and fits your budget.

Good luck!

Sean
---------------------------------------------------------
Sean Carton, DCD
Director
Center for Digital Communication, Commerce, and Culture
University of Baltimore
BC437

office: 410-837-6675<tel:410-837-6675>
mobile: 410-271-7062<tel:410-271-7062>
twitter: @ubcd3c

From: Adam D Bachman <adam.b...@gmail.com<mailto:adam.b...@gmail.com><mailto:adam.b...@gmail.com<mailto:adam.b...@gmail.com>>>
Reply-To: "baltimore-no...@googlegroups.com<mailto:baltimore-no...@googlegroups.com><mailto:baltimore-no...@googlegroups.com<mailto:baltimore-no...@googlegroups.com>>" <baltimore-no...@googlegroups.com<mailto:baltimore-no...@googlegroups.com><mailto:baltimore-no...@googlegroups.com<mailto:baltimore-no...@googlegroups.com>>>
Date: Wednesday, December 5, 2012 8:58 PM
To: baltimore-node-discussion <baltimore-no...@googlegroups.com<mailto:baltimore-no...@googlegroups.com><mailto:baltimore-no...@googlegroups.com<mailto:baltimore-no...@googlegroups.com>>>
Subject: Robotics kit / platform recommendations

Hey Node folks,


Does anyone have a recommended kit or platform or bill of materials for getting into robotics w/ the Arduino / other Arduino-compatible platform? My budget is up to $200 and I'm interested in making things move on their own, autonomy preferred. Have you had good experiences with a particular store or product? Bad experiences? Any recommendations you feel qualified to make would be helpful.

Related question, does anyone have any experience re-purposing mechanical toys for robotics? RC Cars, motorized things, robots that are not-already-intelligent, etc. Is that worth digging into or is it better to skip straight to purpose-built robotics hardware?


- Adam B.

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[Gary Mauler]

No, we have been working with K12

Would love to have UB participate in robot fest in April.

Parallax has and Arduino shield that works with the Boebot platform.

also, Servo published about a 5 part story on building and programming a low cost robot with the Arduino.  I think a 7th grader could even get through it with a little help.   their approach was like the book that comes with the Bobot kit.

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[Mauler, Gary (ES)]

I think your best bet for a contact at MICA would be James Rouvelle. I don't know if he is on this list.


Gary

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[How7]

On 12/6/2012 8:20 AM, Sean Carton wrote:
> 7th graders were at least as smart as lawyers!

or mba's

[Sean Carton]

Ha! Definitely. :)

---------------------------------------------------------

Sean Carton, DCD

Director
Center for Digital Communication, Commerce, and Culture
University of Baltimore
BC437
office: 410-837-6675
mobile: 410-271-7062
twitter: @ubcd3c

[Hector Leiva]

James Rouvelle's contact is jrou...@mica.edu for all parties interested.

(Long time lurker)

--
H

[Alberto Gaitán]

On 12/6/12 8:11 AM, Sean Carton wrote:
> If you want a simple way to get started with an Arduino-based bot for
> about $200, MAKE sells a kit
> (http://www.makershed.com/MAKE_Rovera_4w_Ardunio_Robot_Kit_p/msrob4w.htm)
> for $194.99. I haven't played with this one myself, but it looks like
> it comes with everything and fits your budget.

On this topic, O'Reilly's page
(http://shop.oreilly.com/product/0636920028024.do) for the excellent
"Make an Arduino-Controlled Robot: Autonomous and Remote-Controlled Bots
on Wheels", By Michael Margolis, has links to example code from which
you can learn a lot. Also, not sure if it'll arrive intact, but I'm
attaching the slides (PDF) of an October 2012 O'Reilly/MAKE webcast
(http://youtu.be/TrfrPweqPxU) by Margolis on this topic.

LATER...

The attachment was too big and this message bounced (it's 6.6MB and the
list has an 8MB max so it should've passed, yes/no?). Anyway, I'm making
it available via this link for the next 2 days:

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/1572093/make_robots__webcast_oct2012_final_5.pdf

Ciao!

Alberto
Dorkbot DC & HacDC

[Gary Mauler]

Some foam board, a hot glue gun, a little double sided tape, and a trip to the national electronics museums store will get you way under your budget.  Then you can say I built it all myself!

If you go by AC Moor craft store you can give it a personality!

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[Adam D Bachman]

Beautiful! This is great stuff everyone, thanks for the input so far.

I've been looking at the kits at Pololu and kind of like the looks of the 3pi, but not sure I want to go with something so pre-assembled. I ran across the MAKE kits last night and they look like an interesting choice. Certainly a future-ready platform for building something mobile.

Alberto: thanks for uploading that PDF, it looks like a strong endorsement of the consideration MAKE put behind their kit.

Eric: thanks for the invite, my Wednesdays are usually pretty busy, but it I'm free and able to come check out an open hack night I'll let you know (probably via this list).

Gary: I'll have to stop by the museum to check out the store. A cheap first pass would satisfy my desire to see things move without blowing the whole budget on aluminum plates and various bits and bobs I've already got.

Steve: thanks for another pointer to Baltimore Hackerspace, it's also fun to find companies like Miles', already doing this kind of stuff in the area.

Sean: that camp looked great! From the first moment I told my kids about building with electronics, "robot" has been their number one request. Anything with code may be too advanced for them to work independently, but the boebot is on my short list and might be cool to work on together.

- Adam

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[Alberto Gaitán]

On 12/7/12 12:24 AM, Adam D Bachman wrote:
> Alberto: thanks for uploading that PDF, it looks like a strong
> endorsement of the consideration MAKE put behind their kit.

Adam, To be clear. My post was principally meant as a resource for the
software part of a robotics project (something that Margolis in his
O'Reilly books presents very well). I'm pretty agnostic about which kit
is best. The 3-wheels vs. 4-wheels (vs. n-legs vs. vibrobot!) decision
is informed by your use case. :)

[Adam D Bachman]

Oh sure, I wasn't suggesting you were promoting one-true-kit. It is good to see, though, that MAKE is standing behind their kits and not just dumping them into the world. Plus, the Make kits come with the book, so that's a bonus.

Regarding locomotion, if money was no object I'd be going straight for the two-legged walker (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AM8A0GrYmFU give me chills), but for now, 3 wheels sounds good :D

- Adam

[Lisp M]

Nice thread, guys and gals (&& Bots? <grin>)

My $HolidayList doesn't contain one,
but I've been eyeing some stuff at MicroCenter
(when sales people weren't being $dicks)
and wondering what Arduino (and others
- Parrallax (sp?) not a BASIC fan)
kits were available for robots...

Maybe I should get the 3D printer
(RepRap Mendel Prusa) working
so I can make me own parts...

Polo drivers and H bridges, some nice
stuff to learn, and likely tacky weather
coming up...

Any robot fest/ sci tech fairs, RC battlebot hacking,
/ Node On The Road, etc
coming up to see/ play in person?

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