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 ?
Robot arm smashed into body and the ESP32-CAM blew up. I guess that’s a problem.
@Nink , Yikes! Rogue Robot!!
I hate it when that happens. Keep your fingers in a safe place.
Yeah I guess we are pushing stuff a little too hard. I think I may need to add a diode and a cap on power to stop voltage spikes when a servo fails so it doesn’t take out my ESP. Lucky these things are cheap.
While looking to order some more PCA controllers and ESP Cams I came across this board. It is part of a freenove robot dog kit. They pretty much make all the things I was looking at (Robot dog, hexapod etc all based on the freenove esp we were using). I can’t find any specs on the board but it looks like it may have a PCA PWM controller built in as I can’t see how it is driving all the servos, camera speaker etc. I will buy one of these dogs and see if I can get more info. @athena do you know if the freenove robot dog controller has a built in PCA9685 or how they control so many servos, lights camera speaker off one ESP32 robot dog is on Amazon here https://www.amazon.ca/Freenove-ESP32-WROVER-Included-Walking-Ultrasonic/dp/B0B38QVBP3/ref=asc_df_B0B38QVBP3
@nink
robotis has similar robots .
https://www.generationrobots.com/en/403610-robotis-engineer-kit-2.html
I found the manual and it is actually very good and has instructions to talk to all the devices. So they basically have the board with everything we need and it shouldn’t take much to adapt this to work with ARC ESP firmware. https://docs.freenove.com/projects/fnk0062/en/latest/fnk0062/codes/tutorial/12_Basic_Motion.html
Absolutely @Nomad. They look like great robots but we are looking at 100 euro versus 1000 euro so different ends of the market. I am really looking for something lower cost than the ez-robot that parents could afford to pay for summer camp and after school programs. 3D print and assemble the parts to build a robot then disassemble and build another type of robot. Similar to the way ez-robot works with ARC today but at a much lower cost point.
@nink
i notest the robot in the link , you have to by KIT-1 too to be able to build the robot . and its not cheap .