Here is another Arduino programmable robot that introduces you to the basics of coding. The ArcBotics Sparki robot comes with over 40 parts for you to use to put it all together. It has a LCD display, gripper for grabbing objects, line following/distance/edge detection sensors, and motor wheels. It has open source lessons to help you get the most out of it.
Anyone who has studied robots and self-driving cars knows about LiDAR and other sensors used to make them work. The Onion Tau LiDAR Camera lets you get hands-on experience with this technology. It looks like a webcam but produces 3D depth data instead. It has a plug & play design and 160 x 60 pixel resolution.
So you love watching Sumo robot competitions? The SumoBot WX Competition Kit comes with everything you need to build and program your own Sumo robots. They can be programmed using the BlocklyProp visual programming interface.
Plenty of restaurants are getting serious about using robots to better serve their customers. This robot-powered restaurant in Shenzhen, China is using a conveyor belt system running through the ceiling to move and serve food to customers. Its position can be monitored on a display.
Plenty of companies are working on perfecting UGVs for all kinds of missions, including agricultural tasks. Yamaha’s Agricultural UGV recently took on grape harvesting and transportation work. It combines a mobile platform with a robotic arm to detect the location and number of grapes and uses deep learning to find branches and avoid obstacles.
The United States Army is constantly look for ways to give fighters an edge on the battlefield. It is now getting serious about biohybrid robotics. Army researchers are planning to add muscle tissue in future robots to improve their agility and versatility. They will be able to reach areas risky to human fighters.
The team includes faculty collaborators from Duke University, who will direct computational research, and the University of North Carolina, who will manage experiments validating the predictions from the computational efforts. Army researchers will work on the theoretical mesomechanics that can be tested with the data collected from both the computational and experimental efforts.
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Here is another robotic arm that can teach you a thing or two about technology and programming. The xArm 1S uses a STM32 chip for its main controller. You can program it via a visual programming interface. The xArm 1S can be controlled with a joystick, smartphone app, or mouse.
Here is a surgical robot that helps surgeons feel their way through a robotic surgery. The Senhance surgery robot comes with a haptic feedback system, so surgeons will be able to differentiate between tissues and feel those weakened by infection.
Here is another robot kit that teaches you a thing or two about coding concepts. The Yahboom 16 in 1 Robot Kit is powered by Micro:bit. It has over 350 building blocks that you can use to build 16 robots. This kit is ready for visual and Python programming. You can control the robot with your phone or a handheld remote control.
