Robot insect for the home - Antbo

Robot insect for the home, Antbo, started as a crowdfunded project (see the video below) (https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/antbo-an-insect-robot-anyone-can-build-steam-diy#/) from the DFRobot Robotics. 

This is post is not really a fully review, just some initial thoughts, as I haven't spent enough time playing with it; but what I have seen so far does interest me.

The price during the crowdsource was around the $59-$69 which because of the range of sensors and features does seem reasonable. The screenshot below is taken from the funding website discussing some of the features.

An intriguing point in the literature is the self-learning - using 30 neuron neural network – I would love to have more details of this one.

At the moment I have been controlling it through the iPad app which gives a variety of modes - directly driving; setting it on patrol (first picture below); drawing a path on screen for it to follow (third picture below) and even voice command. All of which it is good for the price point.

DFRobots have developed their own app based programming interface WhenDo (https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/whendo/id1001086940?mt=8) see below , I have only had a brief play with it but seems well featured with functions.

There is a way to connect it to Scratch, this is something I am looking forward to finding out more of and playing with.

One of the things I am always skeptical about from promotional materials, is the build time of projects, the robot "in under an hour" kind of thing; in this case it was true it is quick to build.  I had a problem with it not powering up at first, this helpful website came in useful: https://www.dfrobot.com/wiki/index.php/Antbo_SKU:ROB0140 . The problem was one of the connectors needed to be bent to improve the connection.

So based on what I have seen so far, I am glad I bought it (in fact it was two of them) and will enjoy playing with it/them. 

Something I would be interested in is hearing comments from others who have one (or more) of these. What have you found out?



All opinions in this blog are the Author's and should not in any way be seen as reflecting the views of any organisation the Author has any association with. Twitter @scottturneruon

my robot BETT2017

I will start with a confession, I only had about 2 1/2 hours at BETT 2017 due to external time pressures so to say I didn't yet a chance for a good (or even a bad) look around is an understatement; so I am not reviewing the show just a few notes on what I did manage to see.


STEAM Village
First and mostly, it was great to talk to so many people, only few I had met face to face previously, about robots, micro:bits, Raspberry Pis and coding. Most of this happen in the relatively small (compared to the event space) STEAM village and nearby stalls. It was great to see the strong presence of both Raspberry Pi and Micro:Bit Foundation, along the variety of different activities and example usage of both, with Code Club (I know it is part of Raspberry Pi Foundation) there was well. This was all alongside some other companies

Four of these stuck in my mind.

1. DFRobot (https://www.dfrobot.com/) with their range of Arduino-based robots and non-programmable kits. The two kits that caught my eye was the FlameWheel robotics kit (to see more on this go to https://www.dfrobot.com/index.php?route=DFblog/blog&id=563) and the Insectbot kit (see the video below). As an aside, I recently got one of their new designs Antbo through a crowdfunding offer https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/antbo-an-insect-robot-anyone-can-build-steam-diy/ (more this in a future post)




2. School of Code (http://schoolofcode.co.uk/) with their web-based coding but with the emphasis on collaborative coding was great to see. Have at go for yourself at their character building example http://www.schoolofcode.io/game-avatar, done as part of the Hour of Code, it is good fun.


3. It was great see GitHub were there was as well, and they couldn't be more generous with the stickers and other materials. I wish I had more time to talk to them.

4. Last but not least was CBiS Education (http://www.cbis.education/) with an extremely tall model of their DIMM robot. I think their products are interesting, here are a few earlier posts about projects with their products Robot Arm and Python, UFO talks to Robot part 1, UFO talks to Robot part 2).


Outside of the STEAM village
There were two stands that particularly caught my attention.

Robots In Schools Ltd (I wish I own that name) with their Edbot package - a single Edbot but networked so the teacher can share access to the robot by assigning control to the students machine. I really liked this idea. For more details go to: https://robotsinschools.com/inclassrooms/.

Second was Ubtech (http://ubtrobot.com/) with their Alpha 1 and 2 (more on Alpha 2 in a future post). What I found most interesting was their ideas of potentially embedding Raspberry Pi or Arduino inside their Alpha 1 for a more open source solution.


Would I go back next year? 
Yes please, but I just want a day or more there though next time.  

All opinions in this blog are the Author's and should not in any way be seen as reflecting the views of any organisation the Author has any association with. Twitter @scottturneruon