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[on:]

Hello.

We at Pololu are excited to announce the release of the Zumo Robot Kit for Arduino, a low-profile, Arduino-controlled tracked robot that is small enough to qualify for Mini-Sumo but flexible enough to make your own.  The kit includes a Zumo chassis, a Zumo blade, and our new Zumo Shield for Arduino, which acts as an interface between the Arduino and the chassis.  The shield includes dual motor drivers, a buzzer for making simple sounds and music, and an LSM303DLHC 3-axis accelerometer and magnetometer.



The Zumo Shield is somewhat different in that it sits on the bottom, mounted directly to the chassis, and the Arduino plugs into it face-down. The shield itself offers convenient access to the Arduino reset button, user LED, and Arduino I/O lines, and it features an expansion area in the front for connecting additional sensors (e.g. QTR sensors for edge detection or line following).  For more information, including links to the shield library and user's guide, please see the Zumo Shield product page.  Please don't hesitate to ask if you have any questions, and we welcome your feedback!

 

- Ben

[Reply #1 on:]

I'm very excited about the Zumo robot. It looks like a nice step for me to move on from the Arduino starter kit towards robotics.

Is it a 'beginner-friendly' kit? After the Arduino starter lessons I managed to make some rather useless concepts and now I feel like moving forward to a relatively simple robot and I thought the Zumo will be a nice kit.

One thing I wonder about the kit: How much weight can it approx. move? I'm thinking of 3D printing a nice canopy for (some sort of) bot with some sensors and extra functions along.

Thanks,
Michael

[Reply #2 on:]

Hi, Michael.

I wouldn't say that it's simple to put together; soldering is required, and there are a few steps where you might wish you had a third hand.  You can see all of the assembly instructions in the user's guide.  Once it's assembled, it should be pretty easy to make it drive around, since it's just a matter of calling the appropriate functions from the Arduino library we provide.  You can make it as complicated as you want by adding additional sensors and hardware.

It should be able to easily carry a canopy and extra electronics.  Mini-sumo robots have a weight limit of 500g (approximately a pound), and I expect it to be able to tolerate at least a few pounds, but that also depends on the motors you choose to use for it.  You'll need more torque to carry more weight, so you might consider the 75:1 or 100:1 HP micro metal gearmotors.

By the way, you might be interested in our 12/12/12 sale, which started today and goes until the end of the world (or through Dec 21, whichever comes first).  We have select items on sale for $12, $24, and $36 (the Zumo and our micro metal gearmotors are sale items), and you can get 12% off everything else.



- Ben

[Reply #3 on:]

Sounds great Ben, I'll go for it! I'm familiar with soldering things and assembling parts so that's not really my concern. Programming and the electronics are kind of new to me so that's where my attention needs to go to.

Will place my order tomorrow :-)

[Reply #4 on:]

We'd love to hear how it goes!  There are already a few discussions on our forum about the Zumo; please don't hestitate to post with any questions you have.

- Ben