Can any of you help me pick a robot kit please?

I own a couple Arduino boards, (4 to be exact), and am looking to get into robotics.

These are the kits I am looking at (and notice NONE of them come with an Arduino board):

I also know of the Magician Chassis, but my problem with it is that I can't figure out a shield to go with it and have it be friendly.

The end goal is for it to be a learning experience, so I really have no intents on what to build.

Maybe some robot that can follow a sound, a line on the floor, a light, etc.

Simple DIY robot tutorial.

There are some nice Italian robots that are called: ardubipe, spiderin and ardufilippo that probably are provided of a Shield and an Arduino but i am not shure!
This are the links to see them:
Servizio di incisione e taglio laser - FuturaShop.
Servizio di incisione e taglio laser - FuturaShop.
Servizio di incisione e taglio laser - FuturaShop.

But, their cost is too high so I would say to you to build an own made robot (building the pieces that you need)

If you want to run it on carpet, forget the 2 wheel types. Get a 4 wheel or tracked bot.

Hi newbcake ,
I've made a few robots, but the only one I brought as a kit is the Pololu Zumo (Chassis only), a bit small but that's the point of it. My first one was very simple using micro-switches as sensors, then one on a round perspex chassis, a Pololu Tracked RP5, etc. control has included L293 drivers, servos and ultra-sonic's for distance and obstacle finding..

Build it yourself and save a packet, especially if like me you don't have it in the first place... The Tamiya dual motor gearbox is a good start. I don't find 2 wheel robots a problem at all, in fact tracked bots have problems turning on carpets. Visit http://www.banggood.com/Wholesale-Smart-Robot-And-Accessories-c-2745.html for a very cheap £6 kit.

It all good fun, but a few other more useful things are my seed propagator controller and fish tank controller..

If you care to take a look here: www.melsaunders.co.uk you can see some of my stuff, and my other interest!! I will help you (or anyone else) anyway I can......

Regards

Mel.

Hobby King also has a bunch of nice robot kits.

Despite what steinie mentioned, I've found that 4WD bots tend to have trouble turning on carpet, as the tires tend to bind, and you need to set the motor speed [ie, PWM duty] way up, or else the bot will stall. This is especially a problem with 4WD robots that have higher speed motor gearing and off-road [knobbly] tires.

Also, a big problem with many tracked platforms is the treads tend to come off when turning on carpet.

Also, if the tires are too smooth on 2WD robots, sometimes there is a problem with getting over transitions like the floor strips at doorways, and the metal strips used to hold down the edges of carpets.

I like the design of this robot for a starter kit, but haven't tried it myself, so cannot say about carpet vs hard floors vs transitions. But you get a lot for cheap.

One problem with standard Arduino boards is it's a huge PITN to interface them to r/c servos, but you notice the board that comes with the kit mentioned is specially designed for plugging in servo 3-pin connectors.

Problem with the two wheel ones is something has to hold up the end. That is usually a caster. The caster is very small and won't go over carpet or bumps.

steinie44:
Problem with the two wheel ones is something has to hold up the end. That is usually a caster. The caster is very small and won't go over carpet or bumps.

Yeah, best to look for a 2WD platform that uses a rotatable wheel rather than a caster. I did look at the pictures of the HK 2WD platform but couldn't tell whether the idler was wheel or caster.

steinie44:
Problem with the two wheel ones is something has to hold up the end. That is usually a caster. The caster is very small and won't go over carpet or bumps.

Robots can have only two wheels, like the bot below, where the bot body is suspended from the axle centerline. I tinkered with the idea of a two wheel bot (bottom), but the jar lid wheels needed to be larger to keep the center of gravity low.

I'm building the Rolly+Bot now. Only a bit larger, so I can strap a 7.2V 3A RC car battery across the bottom.

On doing a little more checking, I found the Hobby King prices are good [ie, low], but their shipping costs from CN to the US tend to be on the high side. However, the robot kits they sell are also available from many other vendors. Some have free shipping from CN, but the unit prices are also a little more. Eg,
http://www.dx.com/s/robot+kits

I also see the smart car has the wheel caster, rather than the ball caster.

Well, the Arduino Robot is definitely a good choice since you have everything you need to build your robot including the microcontroller. You can concentrate on programming.

http://www.ca.diigiit.com/robots-kits/mobile-robot/arduino-robot-us-plug

If you don't want to pay for it, it looks like they have a competition where you can win it!

I can tell you a little about the third kit on your list from Make. The kit is like an erector kit and made of metal. There is a motor add-on kit that comes with a second set of wheels that make it possible to make 4 wheel robots. This is all good.

The board that comes with the kit is junk if you want to learn about arduino and robots. The board has a microprocessor on it plus it requires an arduino. It's difficult to modify the examples if you want to build modifications or do your robot. It's only good if you don't wish to learn Arduino and you only want to follow the book and buy the add-on kits.

If you get rid of the board and use your own motor controller, I think it's a nice kit.

Dave

This one is not released to the public yet, but if you can wait for about two month, you'll get something extraordinary.
http://forum.arduino.cc/index.php?topic=259006.0

Great feedback on this thread. Anyone try a kit/chassis like this? http://amzn.com/B00KNS1AF8

When I was first getting into robotics, one of my first projects was this: http://www.societyofrobots.com/robot_tutorial.shtml

I used an Arduino as a microcontroller though, but its a good start. I then upgraded it with ultrasonic and distance sensors to make an obstacle avoider, then later made an array of IR LEDs to make a line follower.