Robot Kit Reviews

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DF RobotShop Arduino-complete, affordable and expandable The DFRobotShop Rover is an Arduino-complete robot that is a collaborative development between RobotShop and DF Robot. It’s only $90; an attractive price for the delivered functionality. Everything but the batteries and USB cable are included in the kit. The kit is built from many “standard” parts packaged into the kit; a lot easier than trying to buy all the parts individually. The metal side mounts and the large circuit board are custom made for the Rover.
BOTBUILDER - BoxBot A robot for “cowboys”! The BoxBot is a straightforward, easy-to-assemble robot kit that includes an open-source microcontroller, development environment and programming language. This kit is the creation of Steve Carpenter, a robotics enthusiast at BotBuilder—a United Kingdom-based supplier of robot kits and components.
MythBusters - BONUS ONLINE REPORT: Grant Imahara discusses engineering details of the VEX "PackBot" project To explore the capabilities of the VEX Robotics System, we chose to build our simplified version of iRobot’s PackBot (see ). The goal was for the robot to be able to climb stairs and small piles of debris using only VEX components. Sounds like a tall order, right? You bet. Fortunately, our friends at Radio Shack were kind enough to allow us to preview some of the exciting accessories planned for the VEX system, including tank treads, a programming kit, ultrasonic rangefinder sensors, and optical shaft encoders. ROBOT magazine provided us with a wireless remote camera distributed by Shulman Aviation to complete our PackBot’s control package.
LEGO® MINDSTORMS™ Revolution! ROBOT had the privilege of meeting with Soren Lund, International Director of LEGO® MINDSTORMS™, and with Kristin Greene (Flashpoint PR), who has been helping coordinate the public relations side of MINDSTORMS since its inception in 1998, to learn more about the new LEGO MINDSTORMS release. It was for us, an extraordinary interview—ROBOTwas given an opportunity to take pictures and video clips of the new technology in action.
Mythbusters Test The Vex Robotic Design System - page 1 Jamie Hyneman, Grant Imahara and Adam Savage, cohosts of the popular MythBusters TV show on the Discovery Channel, have many years of experience designing animatronic robots used in commercials, science fiction movies and other popular media. This team also has broad experience in radio control and hobby robotics. We are proud to include their review of Radio Shack’s new VEXTM Robotics Design System in the inaugural issue of ROBOT. Visit www.botmag.com/issue1 for additional photos, a detailed, photo-rich “build report” by Grant Imahara and video clips of the MythBusters commenting on their VEX PackBot system.
Programming Solutions for the LEGO Mindstorms NXT - Which approach is best for you? (Part 2) Three different programming environments are available from LEGO for the NXT– NXT-G, ROBOLAB and ROBOTC, and they all make it quite easy to program Mindstorms robots. In addition, the open source community has developed other alternative programming solutions for the NXT. This article provides an introduction to the rich selection of programming approaches available today. This online expanded version of the Winter 2007 article features an extended comparison table and a lot more technical details behind this article.
Programming Solutions for the LEGO Mindstorms NXT - Which approach is best for you? Three different programming environments are available from LEGO for the NXT– NXT-G, ROBOLAB and ROBOTC, and they all make it quite easy to program Mindstorms robots. In addition, the open source community has developed other alternative programming solutions for the NXT. This article provides an introduction to the rich selection of programming approaches available today. This online expanded version of the Winter 2007 article features an extended comparison table and a lot more technical details behind this article.