Robot kit that includes wheel encoders?
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Robot kit that includes wheel encoders? cadcoke3 10-04-2006
Posted by on October 4, 2006, 7:04 pm
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I am looking for a complete robot kit which includes encoders for the
wheels. All of the kits I've seen omit this feature. Of course, price
is an issue for me (defintely under $300).

The reason I was looking for a complete kit, was that I am weak in
regards to programming. If I can get a complete kit, I figgure that
there will already be some instructions about including the encoder
information in the programming.

Can anyone suggest one?

Joe Dunfee


Posted by on October 5, 2006, 6:14 am
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Hello Joe,
Look around the "http://www.ridgesoft.com/". Their intelliBrain-Boe
is a complete kit. They seem to have good tutorial and docuement. The
prgramming language is Java.
-Pandit


Posted by on October 5, 2006, 9:27 am
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ppanbura@yahoo.com wrote:
> Look around the "http://www.ridgesoft.com/".

Thanks for the link. I had not come across their page before. It is
based off the Parallax Boe-bot, but adds their own controler and does
include wheel encoder sensors. But, most importantly, it seems to be
well documented in every aspect of the computer (both hardware and
software).

At $300 for the base model it at the top end of my budget. The actual
hardware of the robot probably less than $50 of that cost. Their
"brains" board is certainly very complete, but I suspect the majority
of the cost is going towards their development of the educational
content.

Joe Dunfee


Posted by Gordon McComb on October 5, 2006, 11:35 am
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cadcoke3@yahoo.com wrote:
>
> I am looking for a complete robot kit which includes encoders for the
> wheels. All of the kits I've seen omit this feature. Of course, price
> is an issue for me (defintely under $300).
>
> The reason I was looking for a complete kit, was that I am weak in
> regards to programming. If I can get a complete kit, I figgure that
> there will already be some instructions about including the encoder
> information in the programming.

It's not that hard to add the encoders if you need them. Nubotics makes
an after-market product called the Wheel Watcher that works with
servo-based robots. Their standard product interfaces to those colored
plastic injected wheels that are popular, but they also sell an adapter
to allow for use with just about any wheel. The Wheel Watcher uses
quadrature encoding, and they provide programming examples for various
common controllers.

Encoders are not a universal requirement. A line follower doesn't need
them, for example. So it just adds to the cost, and when budget is a
main consideration, the extra $$ for a pair of encoders could be used
for something else you might be looking for, like a gripper or an
accelerometer.

-- Gordon

Posted by Ringo on October 5, 2006, 12:50 pm
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Look at the Botster or Traxter from www.roboticsconnection.com. They
have optional encoders.
Ringo

Gordon McComb wrote:
> cadcoke3@yahoo.com wrote:
> >
> > I am looking for a complete robot kit which includes encoders for the
> > wheels. All of the kits I've seen omit this feature. Of course, price
> > is an issue for me (defintely under $300).
> >
> > The reason I was looking for a complete kit, was that I am weak in
> > regards to programming. If I can get a complete kit, I figgure that
> > there will already be some instructions about including the encoder
> > information in the programming.
>
> It's not that hard to add the encoders if you need them. Nubotics makes
> an after-market product called the Wheel Watcher that works with
> servo-based robots. Their standard product interfaces to those colored
> plastic injected wheels that are popular, but they also sell an adapter
> to allow for use with just about any wheel. The Wheel Watcher uses
> quadrature encoding, and they provide programming examples for various
> common controllers.
>
> Encoders are not a universal requirement. A line follower doesn't need
> them, for example. So it just adds to the cost, and when budget is a
> main consideration, the extra $$ for a pair of encoders could be used
> for something else you might be looking for, like a gripper or an
> accelerometer.
>
> -- Gordon


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