3d Printed Arduino Robot

After discussing for months and brain storming different ideas on how to develop a locally made robot that can be used by teachers like me to teach, students to learn and researchers to experiment with, we've managed to make our first 3d printed mobile robot. For start we took a design from thingiverse and got it 3d printed. We added an Arduino, did some programming and it turned out pretty good.   

The main idea behind this is to have affordable "Made in Pakistan" robot kits that are affordable by everyone. We have a few research labs that have the latest in robots such as the NAO humanoid, the People bot and other kits. Unfortunately these have been acquired after spending large sums of public money or donations. What we wanted was to start making robot kits that can be used by not only these research labs but but by high school kids, college students and hobbyists. This mobile robot is a first in that series. We will also be developing quad copters, humanoids and other forms. 

This mobile robot at this stage has the following features:

- 3d printed design

- An Arduino Mega 2560 microcontroller

- A Sonar Sensor Module

- A bluetooth Module

- Completely hackable design

Here are images and video of the developed robot kit

3d printed parts have arrived

For our mobile robot for teaching and learning, we got the 3d printing done from our friend Syed Ali Ahsan in Karachi. Ahsan bhai runs the facebook page 3d Printing Pakistan and is a wonderful guy. He is very supportive and not only prints but guides people if they need help. This robot was also printed by him using his deltabot 3d printer. In the previous post we had a look at some of the videos that he sent us of the parts being printed. Today we received the parts in Islamabad. Exciting times! Here are some pictures of the 3d printed parts

The Package!

Everything wrapped in plastic bags

Part of the base

The other side

All the 3d printed parts

Building a mobile robot

In SMART Lab we are building a mobile robot for teaching and learning. The idea is to have a low cost 3d printed robot that is Arduino and Raspberry PI compatible. Initially we are using a design from thingiverse as a starting point. We will build and improve upon this design and write software that can be used by school kids as well as university students. Following is a video of the base being 3d printed by our friend in Karachi.