ROBOTS EVERYWHERE
For many, 2020 was quite the decade. While we all tried to survive a deadly virus and out of control wildfires, businesses still need engineers, and startups still have ideas. One of these clients is Occumetric, who contracted us to design and develop their lift test machine. The project was quite an interesting case study in the use of parallel processing and real time averaging to improve the accuracy of sensor suites, with a bit of biomimicry thrown in.
We'd like to showcase the bespoke work we've been doing using the Parallax Propeller. The Prop and Prop2 are unique multicore microcontrollers made by Parallax Inc; their architecture allows for executing parallel tasks in hardware, which makes them perfect for things like autopilots or applications that need to control a number of motors and sensors at once. The Prop is a capable brain for small and medium robot designs, and an excellent spine for more complex designs where a Pi or other SBC has to do the abstract thinking.
The SMOL is Robots Everywhere's latest robotics platform, and it has a rather long story behind it. To introduce the SMOL, it is a tiny mobile camera system that can connect to, or provide, a WiFi network that allows a user to control the robot via a web interface or API. It is designed for extensibility - more servos, more sensors, different chassis - and we hope retail customers will enjoy it as much as our industrial ones.
We love posting cool L-Cheapo projects sent to us by our customers, and this one comes from Duarte Silva of Portugal. He's done a few engravings like this on his new L-Cheapo Mk7, and I do say they've turned out very well. Check out the video, too!
One of the things we decided we wanted to do before the launch of Antbot 2.0 is replace the store. The old web store was built on a dated engine that lacked a lot of convenience features for users, and was specialized for the use case of one user purchasing one product. This worked well for the early days of L-Cheapo, with no options, giving users a 'push button, receive laser' experience. As our range of products evolves, so too must our store.
As part of the Antbot 2.0 development, we've invented a new form of rocker-bogie suspension (patent pending), that uses a cable system to balance the rocker arms. On October 16th, we presented this design at the Mars Society Convention. Now that they have posted our presentation to the general public, we would like to share this mechanism with you!
With the launch of Antbot 2.0 around the corner, we've been looking for opportunities to share some of our development efforts with our readers. With the new motherboards prototyped and passing tests, and the new console software nearly ready for a beta release, we wanted to show you something.
While we continue to move forward on Antbot Mk2 development, we have another customer submission for everyone. This time by Keith Wagar, from Facebook (no references provided), he has sent us some nice photos of a wood burning project he has been doing using the L-Cheapo mk7 laser.
Our founder, Matteo Borri, was recently interviewed on Italian television station Kre@TV regarding both their contributions to space exploration, as well as the charitable efforts Robots Everywhere made towards helping COVID19 relief in the Verbania region of Italy. We'd just like to share the video of this interview with our Italian-speaking audience, so they might enjoy it.
2021 brought a lot of setbacks to the Land Raider. Paint shortages, a long winter, and the struggles of the pandemic turned a few weeks of painting time into six months of waiting. Finally, however, it is here, and it is impressive.
© Robots Everywhere