by Damián
e-Puck
Their project: Open Hardware Educational Robot
Some of their goals: Cheap, flexible, User friendly
Project people: It's been developed by ten people split in four different groups that have developed
different modules of the robot.
Structure: simple, small cylindric shape, two wheels.
COMMENTS:
- Would be great to get to a robot like this, very upgradable, open architecture, "cheap", flexible, oriented to teach and learn from it.
- Different boards with different tasks mounted one on top of the other one.
- "Cheap" The final prize for this robot is 545 €, 685 $. It isn't cheap for High schools interests but it is consider cheap in the robot's market.
Microbótica
Most of the webpage in Spanish, if not all
Projects: Their idea was to build some microbots able to cooperate among them. The developed several different boards. Some of those are:
- A autonomous control system board.
- Artificial vision autoguide.
- Professional develop board (c-programmable).
They also focus in bots tournaments. Their products have been lately adapted to educational use in some Universities in Spain. Also used by secondary education schools (14 to 16 years old)
Structure: Different robots, most of them use wheels to move.
COMMENTS:
- Easy to use; not very flexible for higher level education; relatively old architecture: they still use a Motorola HC11 microcontroller.
- As the e-puck they also use the same board philosophy.
Evolution Robotics
Projects: Two different projects for two different levels.
ER1: capable of recognise objects, speech recognition, networking, remote control,autonomous mobility, gripper (arm) extra hook-up tool.
ERSP: Intended for advanced level and research It has a development platform with four primary areas of functionality: vision, navigation, interaction and architecture. The difference between ERC1 and ERSP is mostly the level of knowledge required to use them.
COMMENTS: Two different robots for different levels of use.
K-Team
Project: some different robots, Khepera III is the most advanced (They also distribute e-puck)
Features: embedded Linux, IR sensors, ultrasonic sensors, wifi and bluethooth
The Khepera III is a new standard tool for robotic experiments and demonstrations such as:
Navigation , Artificial Intelligence, Multi-Agents System, Control, Collective Behavior, Real-Time Programming, Advanced Electronics Demonstration
Structure: cylindric like shape, Khepera III diameter is 13cm.
