Society of Robots - Robot Forum

Mechanics and Construction => Mechanics and Construction => Topic started by: sdlsahan on August 13, 2015, 11:41:18 AM

Title: Need Help to make a low cost bot
Post by: sdlsahan on August 13, 2015, 11:41:18 AM

Hello there,

I'm an Engineering undergraduate doing Electrical & Electronic. I'm doing a project related to the 'kilobot' project. I need to create a small robot ( I guess it's called a 'bot') at very low cost. It just needs to have a method for locomotion & a IR module to communicate with each other. Further, it needs to have a microcontroller.

Can I buy it from somewhere like 'ebay'? I need to have atleast 10 of these.

Any help is appreciated. Thanks :)

Title: Re: Need Help to make a low cost bot
Post by: cyberjeff on August 13, 2015, 07:05:51 PM

There's a ton of them around.

Here's a cheapy from our friends at Servo City:

https://www.servocity.com/html/peewee_runt_rovertm__637158_.html#.Vc07zflViko (https://www.servocity.com/html/peewee_runt_rovertm__637158_.html#.Vc07zflViko)

Arduino's and their clones are cheap, so are IR sensors. Easy to hook up, the IR code is simple.

Buy local at Microcenter ($6 for a UNO R3, last I looked) or buy online For what you are doing a UNO is easy and sufficient.

If you buy on Ebay or some place like Banggood, and I do, be aware of where it is being shipped from. China can take a while.

Title: Re: Need Help to make a low cost bot
Post by: sdlsahan on August 13, 2015, 10:43:49 PM

Thank you very much for your reply.

https://www.google.lk/search?q=kilobot&es_sm=93&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0CAgQ_AUoAmoVChMI5vCa-96nxwIVBhqOCh1KNA6l&biw=1366&bih=667#imgrc=TcyCHN4MlbWFaM%3A (https://www.google.lk/search?q=kilobot&es_sm=93&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0CAgQ_AUoAmoVChMI5vCa-96nxwIVBhqOCh1KNA6l&biw=1366&bih=667#imgrc=TcyCHN4MlbWFaM%3A)

The size of the robot should be a little more than this. Robotics is not the area of my expertise :) Is there some place where I could but these small ones?

Since the size needs to be small, I was thinking of maybe using a PIC microcontroller.

Thanks again :)

Title: Re: Need Help to make a low cost bot
Post by: cyberjeff on August 14, 2015, 03:03:00 AM

Hmmm,

I found the North American distributor

http://www.roadnarrows-store.com/featured-products/kilobot-10-pack.html (http://www.roadnarrows-store.com/featured-products/kilobot-10-pack.html)

But the price is surprisingly expensive

I have seen these before with no intelligence and I had one myself.  Here is a party pack:
 
http://www.makershed.com/products/brushbot-party-pack (http://www.makershed.com/products/brushbot-party-pack)

Near as I can tell, the PIC still needs a board.
Perhaps this:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Digispark-Kickstarter-Attiny85-5V-Mini-USB-Micro-Development-Board-Arduino-/121657296283?tfrom=111654763655&tpos=top&ttype=price&talgo=undefined (http://www.ebay.com/itm/Digispark-Kickstarter-Attiny85-5V-Mini-USB-Micro-Development-Board-Arduino-/121657296283?tfrom=111654763655&tpos=top&ttype=price&talgo=undefined)

That still would need some wiring and perhaps a few extra parts, also needs 5V

More money but 3V.

http://www.adafruit.com/products/1500?gclid=Cj0KEQjwo7auBRCOtoqn_s-G7aMBEiQAxArNrOTOoE63hsPfqWVE54y9EYEK9HlN--stxU4cS7_ajpcaAg9K8P8HAQ (http://www.adafruit.com/products/1500?gclid=Cj0KEQjwo7auBRCOtoqn_s-G7aMBEiQAxArNrOTOoE63hsPfqWVE54y9EYEK9HlN--stxU4cS7_ajpcaAg9K8P8HAQ)

Which pretty much leaves your question of where to buy a cheap kilobot unanswered, sorry...