Affordable Modular ARC Robotics Kit
Is it time for a new ARC compatible Robotics Kit? Most of us came across ARC back in the days of EZ-Robot. These are great robotic kits for schools and summer camps to teach kids robotics. The problem is the cost and availability. ARC now works with ESP32-CAM and PCA9685 controllers. Together these provide a lot of the functions of an EZ-B for around $5. So now using low cost servos like MG90S or other 9g servos you can build a bipod robot that works with ARC for under $50. Using a modular design the pieces could also be used to build other robots like Hexapods, Robotic Dogs, Rovers etc. ARC has all the functions built in to support a new robotics kit all we need to do is design the connectable servo casings, servo horns. body and other components for 3D printing. We could then provide the free 3D printable models and even make kits available for sale. ARC makes it easy to program, build and configure the robot and this would make robotics a low cost barrier of entry for students and still teach all the skills needed to learn basic robotics with all the features that now come with AI integration.
There are a bunch of opensource ESP / PCA based robots available that you can make work with ARC today, but I think a modular design that allows you to build a range of different robots that have pre programmed projects, scripts and build instructions available for ARC would be the best approach.
Anyone interested in working on something like this ?
I like it. My experience with servos would be the only concern, specifically the little micro servos that many of these kits use. I'd recommend the kit for a standard-size hobby servo. The other thing you mentioned is servo horns. The alignment of different manufactured horns is all different, so 90 degrees isn't the same across servos or horns. ARC overcame this in the early days by implementing the fine-tune servo option, so that's not a big deal, just an extra step before connecting.
The servo concern is safety and longevity - to ensure standard size servos and quality servos that aren't going to heat up and light on fire - if you're getting involved with selling the kits. If you are selling the kits, be mindful of where they end up, because one or two fires in a school per year are bound to happen. That's why, at ezrobot, we designed our own servos with a ton of safety measures to prevent that.
I'm merely brainstorming so take what ever i say as experience of where you'd like to see the product end up... consumers, education, diy hobbyists, etc... once you decide who the product is for and who's selling it, it'll determine how much "safety" and "standardization" and "realibility" will be required in the kit.
Either way, I support the initiative and am onboard to help where needed! Specifically, if the cost is low enough that ppl can have several of these crawlers on their desk
Thanks DJ and I hear you on the servo concerns. The $2 MG90s clones smoke more often than not. I am worried about going custom servos as the price would go up significantly. The RC industry is putting out some solid low cost 12g servos so standardizing on something like Emax ES08MA II that in bulk would be under $10 ($4 direct from emax), so in kits a high quality COTS servo maybe a good compromise. Yes people could 3d print and buy knock off emax if they wanted to but with a standard at least the servo horns would all be the same.
I guess step one, I modify a JD robot and see if we can actually drive a16 servo robot off an ESP32.
Wicked, you got an idea on servos away from mg fireballs
. Are those images of a real existing robot kit or did you chat gpt the images? Or is this sownthing that you’re creating from scratch?
That was just AI. I don’t have any actual CAD skills that’s why I am cyber begging for help from other Synthiam skilled people.
AI CAD design software
Once you learn how to draw things in a CAD-like program, it's super easy and quite fun.
I'm an old CAD guy myself (the 2D world of Autocad), Still trying to learn the 3D world. Would be fun to see more kits, but much larger (midsize maybe) modular kits with either standard size servos or giant scale servos (big RC Modeler here), love to see them geared toward the DIY as well. I'm still a fan of the EZB4, with all its I/O ports.
16 servos work on the bench (moving in a loop from 5 degrees to 175 degrees) and camera is running and stable. Apparently you can daisy chain the PCA9685 cards for 32 ports (even up to 96 ports) . I wonder.