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Cheap Robot Kits? 16

Posted by Cliff from the jonny-5-is-alive dept.
Defusion_Dunk asks: "Having just watched a re-run of "Short Circuit", and in particular the scene where Steve Guttenburg is teaching the robot arm to play a keyboard, I would like to know: Does anyone know where I can purchase a cheap robot arm that I can plug into my PC and do neat things with? For some reason I have always had a dream of having my computer open a can of Coke for me.... " I remember building a small robot as a science project waaay back in junior high school, and the experience of building it was educational and fun. Does anyone have any pointers to such kits that may still be available today?
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Cheap Robot Kits? More

Cheap Robot Kits?

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  • I was looking on that website the tonight looking for shape memory alloys (muscle wires) and I saw a few manipulator arms.

    If I remember correctly, they can only lift a few ounces, so I don't think that it will be able to pour you a soda, but I did see that they can be controlled via a serial port and a terminal program, otherwise you have to use some sort of control program written in DOS (yowza)!
  • How about a Mobile Arm [lynxmotion.com]? Then it could get the coke from the fridge too.
  • Lego mindstorms is expensive, but very versatile. Officially its only supported by Windows, but there's also LegOS [www.noga.de]

  • We must learn to think of the consequences (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    In the frantically changing world in which we live in today, there are overwhelming pressures acting upon society for more and faster change and growth. Academics want to be the first to publish their research and corporations want to be the first to get the market; either way, it results in a drive to develop new technologies and their applications as quickly as possible.

    The pace of change has outstripped our capacity to learn to deal with its effects. A new technology comes out and by the time we, as a society have considered its ramifications and learnt to deal with it, that technology has developed three generations down the line and requires another rethink. And when it comes to potentially dangerous technologies like robots and AI, we really need to think of the consequences before they happen.

    If AI and/or robots are ever developed they will not think in the same way that we will - for they are soulless aggregrations of silicon and metal - and this difference will inevitably mean that they are alien to us and our viewpoint. Given this inherent difference, how can we ever live in harmony? No, conflict will be inevitable because we are different classes of being, and there is only room for one sapient creature on this planet.

    But will we have time to debate and think about this before it happens? No, because the greed-driven corporations will push it for the money they can make off of it, and scientists will blindly rush towards it driven by their curiosity and desire for success. Maybe the pace of development should be stopped so that we can consider the consequences?

  • You are correct in that these are 'soulless' machines. But you have just struck down your whole argument. A robot as it is today is just a motorized device. It accepts commands that tell it where to move. The only way it interacts is, a, it does what you tell it to do, b, when it cant do it it gives you an error message and c, if you stand too close to it while its program is running it bonks you in the head. It does not try to mimic emotions or even an identity (unless you count Device Controller 0x05c on COM1). It does not try to have a conversation with you. and it is not even intelligent enough to do anything without commands. It is similar to (gasp!) the computer you are sitting in front of, Anonymous Coward. And I am inferring that you do like computers (your post was submitted at 3:45 AM). So I agree with you. We must prevent the spread of robotics and anything like them. They have no soul. Why dont you start by smashing that computer in front of you? its 100x smarter and more 'soulless' then the stupid robot.
  • Puhleeze...the guy's talking about making an ARM, for crying out loud. The only "consequences" he really needs to worry about are those that go along with miscalculating angles while attempting to make the arm pour liquids next to sensitive electronic equipment.

    *sploosh* *bzzt*
  • You'll have to do some work but this stuff is pretty sound. I have a friend who works for them http://www.shadow.org.uk
  • Interesting question. I can't be of much help, but I remember a TV advertisement for some sort of nail-strengthening cream..the whole premise of the ad was that it takes a hell of a lot of force to open a can. it was a pretty amusing ad, the screen looked like a RoboCop vision field, and it zoomed in on the nail opening the can..then there was a readout on the display about the force required, and the dramatic conclusion (!) was the nail breaking.

    oh well. hey, your breakdancing helicopter sounds cool. make an AVI of it and put it up for us to see.

  • There was a feature on Slashdot some weeks back about an inexpensive robot kit. The kit is $89 and is a pretty basic robot but it has a lot of potential. The kit is complete, however, there is some assembly required (including soldering) but it does not look very difficult. Here is the link [tripod.com].
  • I think you'll find that coke cans are not designed with robotic opener friendlyness as a concern. Using something to pierce 2 holes is probably alot easier than pulling the tab...

    More on topic, I found a nifty site at http://www.lynxmotion.com/
    But it's not really cheap..
    This one is cheaper, and has source for their control software on their page:
    http://www.imagesco.com/catalog/RoboticArm/Robot icArm01.html

    I found lots more by feeding http://www.google.com/ "robot arm kit"

    More offtopic:

    Back in college we used a big GMF robot to flatten cans. A huge 8 foot tall 6 axis robot is a bit overkill for this task... One day someone set an incorrect path, and before they could hit the e-stop, it moved a 1 ton CNC lathe several feet across the floor...
  • Sorry, but this "Anonymous Coward" is incorrect. It is impossible to know the consequences of any given new technology, as almost anything can be used for good or evil. Past predictions have often been wrong, on both sides. Most new technologies have been greeted with grand expectations and dire warnings, both of which are overblown.

    His question "Maybe the pace of development should be stopped so that we can consider the consequences?" has a very scary subtext. Does he actually think all humans will stop experimenting? Or does he see a super-national Commissioner of Science that would license all researchers and ban any study of the forbidden topics?
  • Yes, man, yes!

    THINK OF THE CONSEQUENCES! The world might end if your robotic arm opened a COKE for you!

    What a hoser. I wish I had moderator points today so I could relegate your completely irrelevant post to oblivion.
  • Probably get moderated down for offtopic, but what sort of force is required to open a can of coke? I've been playing with Mindstorms and the best I've gotten was a helicoptor that breakdances (although not in time to the beat).

    Can a Lego Mindstorms bot articulate small enough to open a can? Is it strong enough?
  • The one place that I have found to be a good store to shop at for all my robo stuff is http://www.robotstore.com They have muscule wires to servos, robo arms to Basic stamps... Hope it helps Seany
  • Ars Robotica [arsrobotica.com] is a pretty cool robotics site that might have what you are looking for. Their tutorials and news blurbs usually deal with surplus items and cheap hardware. Reading their "newsfeed" will keep you alerted to any good deals out there on interesting stuff for the robot hobbiest.
  • It is unlikely you will get a robot arm to open a can of coke for you, being that coke cans are designed for humans to open, but I can imagine building (or buying) an arm to pour you a coke into a glass.

    With that said, in answer to your question as to where to get a cheap arm, might I suggest Ebay?

    Go on Ebay, and search for the words "robot" and "arm", and you will likely get a few hits every time. One caveat though:

    Most of the time, these robot arms will be of the "Armatron" variety. For computer control, these arms can be converted - for the normal Armatron (the one controlled by joysticks, with the countdown timer, two blue balls, etc), it takes 6 motors, or a few solenoids (depending on if you want to open the thing up or not) - actually the six motor version is best - there is an old Radio Electronics magazine article on how to do it, and control it from a VIC-20 or C=64 - I can't remember the issue off-hand, but it is either 1983 or 84 - possibly April, May or June - I think (I have a copy - if you would like me to scan and post it somewhere, leave a reply to this message, and I will work it out).

    One note on the "normal" Armatron - several versions were made - Tomy made the original (and if you see the word "vintage" and the asking price is high, say over $25.00, make sure it is a Tomy - more on that in a bit) - it was blue and grey, and had (orange?) "hoses" that connected the forearm and shoulder. Tomy later sold the rights to Radio Shack to produce the toy, they kept the same color scheme (sans hoses), but then switched to a grey and white color scheme in later (after 1990?) years. Don't believe anyone if they say it was manufactured prior to 1980 - this toy didn't appear until around 1981 or 82 from Tomy - and it is rare that you actually see a Tomy version, most of them are the RS version (if you are a collector, you want the Tomy version - with the hoses, and not the RS version). You should be able to pick up any one of these for less than $40.00 on Ebay (unless it IS a Tomy original, then who knows)...

    One company actually built a mobil version of this device for the Radio Shack Color Computer, and added a video camera/digitizer to the package as well (the camera was mounted on the shoulder of the machine), and sold it through Rainbow magazine...

    Radio Shack later came out with what they called the Mobile Armatron (not the same as the independent machine produced above) - it was an arm on a wheeled base, with a wired controller - very easy to hook up to a computer to control, much more so than the original Armatron (the orginal Armatron uses a complex transmission and a single motor to control all six functions of the arm - this was Tomy engineering at it's finest) - these tend to go cheap on Ebay as well.

    Every once in a while you may find one of the original serial port trainer arms manufactured in the late 70's/early 80's for schools (pick up an old copy of Byte magazine from the time to see what I mean). These were meant to interface, most generally, to an Apple IIe or similar machine of that day, to the serial port. However, people on Ebay know these when they see them - many may have busted parts (like pulley strings/cables) that would have to be replaced - but a competent individual should have no problem here. By the way, if you ever find a Rhino arm - snatch it up, it was one of the original trainers.

    Ever so rarely though, one may be able to bid on Ebay for an industrial robot - I have seen hydraulic, electric, and pneumatic go up for bid there, though may times for high prices (but certainly way less than what the machines would cost new!), and most of the time you have to go pick them up. But they are there for the enterprising individual.

    On a final note, you can also find the full line of Tomy robots on Ebay - from the well known Omnibot (which has also been seen in a RobotWar or two), to the lesser known Verbot, Chatbot, and Omnibot 2000. For computer control, I would say the Omnibot 2000 would be the easiest. One could either rip the guts out, and control him directly, or attempt to interface to the myriad ports on the back of the robot (from what I can see on the documentation on the Omnibot 2000 I own, it looks like Tomy wanted to provide a computer interface, but it never saw the light of day), or interface through the radio control. What is interesting about the Omnibot 2000, is if you can get the serving tray with yours, the right arm can be set up and controlled to lift a coke can up to a person, and "serve" the person a coke (and from the looks of my tray, it looks like someone tried at one time to have the bot pour a coke into a glass and serve the glass, but instead spilled the coke - but what is funny, is that the Omnibot 2000's wrist can rotate, so it is possible to pick an open coke up with the arm, and rotate it to pour it out, so it should be possible in theory - or at least by design). I have thought one could take one of these and mount a couple of Quickcams in the "eyes", giving the robot vision capabilities.

    Just be aware of the collector value on these robots (which is why I haven't torn mine apart) - very few of the Omnibot 2000's can be found (though much more than can be found of the Heathkit Hero line, and many, many more than the Maxx Steele programmable robot!), so the price will go up accordingly (around $300-400, sometimes $500) on the bid. I got mine for the trade of a 486 a few years back - but I got lucky.

    And if you find a Topo, or an Androbot - please let me know...

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