Can anyone suggest an off the shelf kit?

[mawg]

hi, I wonder if anyone can help suggest an off the shelf kit.

What I am really doing id demonstrating remote control over satellite, but it might make it easier for potential clients to grasp if they can see a simple demo.

I need a robot of some sort which I can control from a PC (preferably with an attached cable, although I suppose IR communication would be acceptable).

Beyond that the PC needs to be able to order the robot do something - anything at all: move, pick something up, it doesn't really matter)

Additionally, the robot needs to report something to the user: again, it can be anything at all, maybe even a simple light sensor, or that it hit a wall.

For reason that I won't go into, a small robotic arm, capable of lifting, moving and dropping a small wooden block would be ideal, with some form of sensor giving any kind of feedback (need not be related to the arm, could just be a light sensor attached to it).

Can anyone suggest something cheap & cheerful that fulfils those requirements? (I don't have much budget)

Thanks in advance for any help which you can give me.

[billhowl]

Try this The Experimental Robot Platform by SoR-Admin using Bluetooth communication
http://www.societyofrobots.com/robot_ERP.shtml

[Half Shell]

hi, I wonder if anyone can help suggest an off the shelf kit.

What I am really doing id demonstrating remote control over satellite, but it might make it easier for potential clients to grasp if they can see a simple demo.

I need a robot of some sort which I can control from a PC (preferably with an attached cable, although I suppose IR communication would be acceptable).

Beyond that the PC needs to be able to order the robot do something - anything at all: move, pick something up, it doesn't really matter)

Additionally, the robot needs to report something to the user: again, it can be anything at all, maybe even a simple light sensor, or that it hit a wall.

For reason that I won't go into, a small robotic arm, capable of lifting, moving and dropping a small wooden block would be ideal, with some form of sensor giving any kind of feedback (need not be related to the arm, could just be a light sensor attached to it).

Can anyone suggest something cheap & cheerful that fulfils those requirements? (I don't have much budget)

Thanks in advance for any help which you can give me.

Knowing your budget, instead of just thinking of it as "small", will greatly help steer our advice.

[Admin]

I'm not aware of any kit that does all that you listed. It'd require quite a bit of modding.

The kits that are close to what you want will be a minimum of $500, and more likely $1k after modding it.

[mawg]

A good point. Basically, my budget is "as cheap as possible" so long as it can 1) be controlled from a PC and 2) can report some sort of feedback to the PC. I don't really have to be an arm, for instance.

It seems that lego midstorms give quite a bang for the (three hundred) bucks. Does it have a rival?

Thanks for the reply.

[mawg]

Try this The Experimental Robot Platform by SoR-Admin using Bluetooth communication
http://www.societyofrobots.com/robot_ERP.shtml

Wow, that does look impressive. It is beginning to look like a choice between that, which ought to cost less but require more time, and midstorms.

Thanks for the information.

[Joker94]

just remember there is an entire forum here to help you out