Programmable Robot Kits

While doing research for my last post, I found a wide selection of really cool programmable robots. I really like the appeal of an autonomous robot that has to do its best to be self sufficient. I’ve been into technology for decades and I’ve decided I am going to build my first robot starting with a micro-controller like the Arduino and electrical components.

But if you want to get started with robotics at a higher level, EZ-Robots is definitely worth a look. There are currently three models in their Revolution line, JD Humanoid, Roli, and Six. JD is a humanoid biped, Roli is a tracked rover, and Six a six legged crawler.

 Beginner Robotics Kits

These kits are great if you want to quickly assemble your robot and work on getting your robot do do thing. There are several more models under development that their web site states as “Coming Soon”. They include the Adventure Bot, a 2 wheeled robot with a camera, Galapagos Bot, a 4 legged turtle-like robot with a camera, and a few wheeled or legged creations designed for battle! The Elastic Turret Hexapod is a 6 legged robot equipped with a dual servo powered turret that  aims and fires rubber bands. The Battle Flipper is a 2 wheeled bot with a an attachment that flip another similar bot and there many other add-ons that you can try as well. Finally, the EDI Mech Warrior is a 2 legged robot with a rubber band firing turret.

Educational Robot Kit

For the more creative and adventurous there is an EZ-Robot Developer Kit that has enough parts to create robot from scratch.  It includes a Wi-Fi robot controller, an ezrobot camera, 4 heavy duty servos, 2 continuous rotation servos, a battery holder and more. The features available with this kit are many and include speech recognition, vision tracking, mobile device support, to name a few. You will definitely learn a thing or two about robots if you use this kit.

The kit components, called EZ-Bits, connect together easily with “Clip’n’Play Technology” and the EZ-Builder software to program them is drag-and-drop simple. The software can be enhanced to add new behaviors to your robot. There is also a community of people who have saved their enhancements to the cloud and you can download tons of enhancements for free.

The EZ-Bits can even be 3D Printed directly from the EZ-Builder software. If you have a 3D printer, that’s great. If you’re like the rest of us and don’t have one (yet), you can tap into the 3D Printing Community Service. The website helps you find someone with a 3d printer that is close to you in over a dozen countries.

The company was founded by DJ Sures with the goal of making robots today like the Apple computer was in the 1980’s, simple for all to use. No PhD required for these kits. It all seems pretty amazing and was surprised to find that the company based right here in Calgary. I may have to check them out in person!