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4. Movement Style
Let's determine how your robot will move!
ARC uses movement panels to control how a robot moves. Each project is limited to one movement panel. This is because the movement panel registered itself into the movement manager service. This allows any robot skill to share the control movements of the robot. The list below contains links to recommended movement panels for each robot's movement style.
Tip:
Click here for additional details on how ARC uses movement panels and what a movement panel is.
Advantages of Movement Panels
The convenience of the movement manager service is that any ARC robot project can control any other robot product, irrelevant of the locomotion type (flying, walking, two-wheel driving, etc.). If your ARC project was created for a wheeled robot, you could replace the wheeled movement panel with a drone movement panel. Directions (forward, left, right, etc.) are sent to the movement manager service by any robot skill and handled by the movement panel to have the robot move.
Choose an ARC Movement Panel by Locomotion
Below are movement panels categorized by locomotion type to control a robot with ARC. Select a movement panel to learn how to use it and add it to the project. Or, you may scroll further down this page to view a list of all movement panels.
Gait
Walking/crawling robots with two or more legs based on servo-motors. Humanoids and hexapods are examples of gait robots.Skill: Auto Position with movement panel, Auto Position
Skid Steering
It uses a dual H-bridge to control the motors on the left and right sides in tandem. Both motors are synchronized on each side, whether tracks or wheels. Note what type of motors are driving the skid steer wheels because different robot skills will be required for the specific motor type. For example, a more miniature robot may use continuous rotation servos, while a heavy-duty robot will use a DC Motor driver requiring an H-bridge.Skills: Continuous Rotation Servos, Sabertooth, Dual H-bridge (PWM), Dual H-bridge
iRobot Roomba Base
Use an iRobot Roomba as a base for the robot.Skill: iRobot Roomba Movement Panel
Inverted Pendulum
Uses a dual H-bridge combined with an IMU (inertial measurement unit).Skills: Inverted Pendulum
Quadcopter (Drone)
Uses four or more ESC boards to control brushless motors with propellers for aerial movement.Skills: AR Drone, Custom Movement Panel (preferred)
Swimming
Uses 2-6 individual H-bridges to control left/right, up/down, and forward/reverse thrusters. You may also use servo control to turn thrusters.Skill: Custom Movement Panel
Hovering
It uses a servo to control the wind direction rudder, an H-bridge to control the forward/backward fan, and an H-bridge to control the hover fan.Skill: Custom Movement Panel
Winged
Uses multiple servos to adjust rudder, elevators, and ailerons. It also uses an ESC (electronic speed control) to control the brushless propeller motor or 2 for dual propeller planes.Skill: Custom Movement Panel
2-Wheel Steering
It uses a servo to control the front steering column and an H-bridge to move the robot backward and forward.Skill: Custom Movement Panel
Robot Arm (Multi-Axis)
Uses servo/stepper motor movement in 2 or more axes. A robot arm is an excellent example of this.Skills: Custom Movement Panel, Auto Position (preferred)
Gantry
Uses servo/stepper motor movement in a 2-axis perpendicular configuration for X and Y coordinate movements and a single Z-axis for up/down directions.Skill: Custom Movement Panel
All ARC Movement Panels
Here is a list of all ARC movement panels from the robot skill store. These can also be found in the Movement Panels category of the robot skill store or within the ARC software.
The AR Drone Movement Panel allows control of an AR Parrot Drone Quadcopter v1 and v2. The A and Z keys are used for Up and Down when using the keyboard mode. The Arrow keys are used to move the...
Use this to make your robot walk or move using servos. This movement panel is used for humanoids and hexapods. Create frames and actions to animate the robot servos into pre-defined positions. A...
A movement panel to control brushless motor controllers. These are used in hoverboards or many other robot types.
This movement panel controls two continuous servos, which have continuous rotation. Unlike a Standard Servo, a continuous servo has its internals changed to allow continuous 360 rotation. The two...
Use this skill if your robot requires a motor/movement controller that is not supported. You may assign scripts to the Forward, Backward, Left, Right, and Stop commands. Script functions are also...
An advanced custom movement panel with more features than the regular panel
Control the DJI Tello drone from ARC and receive the camera video feed for tracking.
A movement panel for using a two-channel hbridge that uses DC motors. There is no speed control with this movement panel. The motors will be either ON or OFF. An H-Bridge is an electronic circuit...
A movement panel for using a two-channel hbridge that uses DC motors. This will also control the speed of the motors using PWM signals to increase the robot's mobility. An H-Bridge is an electronic...
The inverted pendulum skill is designed to be used with the Sainsmart v3 balance robot but technically you can use the Sainsmart hardware, combined with ARC, to balance any robot.
Control the older iRobot Discovery and 4xxx for legacy support
Control the iRobot Roomba and read sensor data from 500 series roombas
This skill connects the Ohmnilabs Telepresence Robot servo/wheel hardware with ARC.
This control has been deprecated and replaced with iRobot Movement Panel
Movement panel for the Kangaroo and Sabertooth from Dimension Engineering.
This control supports the Sabertooth H-Bridge Motor Driver as a movement panel with variable speed in Simplified Serial mode.
The Sphero Movement Panel controls a Sphero over Bluetooth. Connect your computer to the Bluetooth signal of your Sphero. The computer will detect 2 COM ports for the Sphero; only one of them will...
Control UBTech Alpha robot via bluetooth
The WowWee MIP robot is hackable with a UART port on the mainboard. Connect the GND, TX, and RX to an EZB’s UART TX and control it from ARC. You can power the EZB with the MIP's onboard batteries,...
The WowWee MIP robot is hackable with a UART port on the mainboard. Connect the GND, TX and RX to the EZ-B's UART TX and RX to control it from an EZ-B.