Low-cost intro to robotics

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flounder
 
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Low-cost intro to robotics

Post by flounder »

I'm going to be a volunteer mentor in a high school computer club next term. I am trying to come up with an "affordable" way to introduce robotics. The $250-and-up Lego kits are out of budget range. I was thinking of an Arduino , a motor/stepper shield, some ultrasonic rangefinders, and a couple stepper motors to provide motive power. Some Lego blocks to build the chassis. Any recommendations of what motors to use? The Zumo kit is also out-of-budget, but its claim of a 75:1 geardown suggests that direct-drive to the wheels may not be adequate.

Note that I have spent 50 years in the software profession, so my understanding of motor torque specs and their relationship to getting something to move are a more than a bit outside my "comfort zone"

Also, the school's budget for this club is $0. So I'm trying to fit solutions into my retirement income, since I'll be supplying all the physical resources except the desktop computers for the Arduino development system--they already have those.

Thanks for any suggestions.
joe

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adafruit_support_bill
 
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Re: Low-cost intro to robotics

Post by adafruit_support_bill »

I'd suggest taking a look at the BoeBot kit. http://www.adafruit.com/products/749
That, plus an Arduino would give you a well engineered basic robotics platform and some basic sensors for about $150. You can expand on that by adding additional sensors and such as the budget allows.

If that is still over budget, you could build a similar robot around an Arduino, a proto-shield, a couple of continuous-rotation servos and your own chassis.

skylark
 
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Re: Low-cost intro to robotics

Post by skylark »

As an educator I went through this. Best ultra low cost approach is to use broken, donated or discarded motorized toys. The motors, drive train, wheels, axels, steering and so on are all ready to for you. Just cut out any unneeded circuitry (toy sound circuits, radio control, etc) and splice in an Arduino + motor controller with a "SharpIR" range finder and you are ready to start programming your autonomous robot vehicle.

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jhammons
 
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Re: Low-cost intro to robotics

Post by jhammons »

Excellent advice Skylark.

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flounder
 
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Re: Low-cost intro to robotics

Post by flounder »

Well, this project has just bubbled back up to the surface again. We have an additional problem for the summer: there will be no access to the computer lab in the school. So we need to equip a small number of students with a development environment. I have considered a Raspberry Pi, which will work OK for the game designers, but not too well for the Arduino users, who will need to compile their sketches and download them to their robotic device. We have neither the time nor the budget to go out and buy "old" PCs or laptops (which may not work, and we don't have time to deal with these problems), and would rather just build the systems ourselves. For example, a Raspberry Pi with a display screen costs less than half the price of a scavenged PC from Goodwill.

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adafruit_support_bill
 
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Re: Low-cost intro to robotics

Post by adafruit_support_bill »

The Pi is a great low-cost platform for such a thing. There are several online articles on using the Pi as an Arduino development platform:

http://razzpisampler.oreilly.com/ch10.html
http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to- ... -Platform/
http://tech.cyborg5.com/2013/05/30/irli ... pberry-pi/

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flounder
 
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Re: Low-cost intro to robotics

Post by flounder »

Thanks. I will go read those links.
joe

codelectron
 
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Re: Low-cost intro to robotics

Post by codelectron »

flounder wrote:Thanks. I will go read those links.
joe
You can think of this project. Its just got off from crowdfunding but it looks like what you want.
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/ryan ... spberry-pi

Krishna

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addled
 
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Re: Low-cost intro to robotics

Post by addled »

This may sound like a wisecrack, but it isn't.
Start a fund-raising initiative...something like Girl Guide cookies,
or get the students together for a car wash event to raise $$.
On a weekend you could raise $500 or more.

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jctj
 
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Re: Low-cost intro to robotics

Post by jctj »

I love Skylark's comment because that gets kids thinking in the right mindset ("Hey, I could take this apart, combine it with that thing over there, and do...") but another option is https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/13 ... y-pi-robot. This quickly gets kids into the programming aspect of robotics and gives them something to see/show for their work (early success) but then gives them lots of room for expanding the basic robot to do something more: add sensors, more complex programs, etc.

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