"Official" Arduino robot at http://arduino.cc/en/Main/Robot, anybody got it?

Hi all!
Has anybody bought the official "Arduino on wheels"?
Anybody using it? What do you think about it?
Features, expandability....
Is there any web site collecting experiences with this beast?
Thanks in advance!
Best regards
Giorgio


Giorgio De Nunzio
giorgio.denunzio@unisalento.it

Hey Giorgio,

I have! :slight_smile:

I cannot really tell you much about my experiences so far – the only thing I did was to implement a simple PD controller for line following (I know that there is one in the libraries – but I wanted to learn how to do it on my own). This works quite well, but it took me a bit because I had to use the official IDE. I originally wanted to use Eclipse with Jantje's plugin but I did not get it running. But one day I will :wink: And this is one of the strenghts of this robot compared to a lot of other rather "cheap" bots: In principle it is very free and you are not bound to a certain operating system when developing your controller.

Regarding the extendability: Currently I am waiting for my ordered sensors, two PING))) ultrasonic and two LDRs which I will use for implementing simple Braitenberg vehicles ... cannot tell you much here since I am still waiting :wink:

Regarding a website: I haven't found a "central" repository for information exchange on the official Arduino robot, but I would also be interested in that!

Cheers,
phil

I am busy implementing a particle filter based on WiFi signal strength for localisation on the robot. Seems to work fine :wink:

Hi Phil, hi Stefan,
thanks for your kind reply!
I am happy of seing that I shall not be alone with the Arduino robot I am about to buy.
Your projects are both very interesting!
I have also seen, from other questions in this forum, that other people begins to work on the bot, and in point of fact extendability seems to be a concern (see, for instance, the question about the wifi shield, that Stefan succeeded in connecting: Stefan, plugging-in cards and wires to establish connections was enough, or did you have to solder as reported at http://arduinorobothelp.wordpress.com/ ?).
Phil, did you receive your components? Are you setting up your Braitenberg vehicle? I'll be very glad of knowing more while you get it working!
By the way, I was surprised by JianyuanMa's question about encoders: he is probably referring to another Arduino robot, not the "official one", isn't he? The Arduino on wheels has no encoders, I think, or am I wrong?
Thanks again
Best regards
Giorgio

Hey Giorgio, I received my sensors – and although I have not much time right now playing with the robot I only quickly connected the sensors in order to see if I can read out the values. And this is really a piece of cake with the Tinkerkit cables and sensors!! Works like a charme ... :slight_smile:

The code for a simple Braitenberg vehicle that follows a light is now completely straightforward. Read out the values from the two LDR sensors and use the input from the left as the value for the right wheel motor and vice versa. Of course you have to map the possible input values (0 - 1024, I think) to the range of the "allowed" motor values (0 - 255, when I remember correctly). I can post the code when I have implemented it but this will take a while, since I am not having much free time currently ...

Cheers,
phil

Hi,

as Phil said, for most sensors that are not that involved the Tinkerkit cables work perfectly fine. However, when you need additional connections like for the WiFi shield a bit of soldering is required, but really basic soldering.

Keep us updated.
Regards
Stefan