Hey guys! We have been working on a robot that will get your next robotic project anywhere! It can climb stairs and overcome unpredictable obstacles with ease! We've been members of LMR for a while and now have just released a Kickstarter that will let anyone here build their next projects upon this robotic platform! No longer are ground robotic vehicles reserved for governments and corporations! Help us launch it to the world here: http://kck.st/1EdP8BH
@Oddbot - If you go today and look for a commercially available robotic chassis that can actually do something (get around our multi-level homes) I’ll stand in amazement if you can find one for less than a couple grand. You’re left with robotshop’s iRobot like flipper bots ranging in the thousands. The price jumps to $2K because I am buying all the parts that are “user friendly” and easy to get rolling with - at retail. My price breaks are on what matters, the mechanical chassis.
I cannot give away the exact motors as that’s apart of the Bill of Materials we are rewarding and wouldn’t be fair to the people who have already backed. I can tell you though that there are 6 drive motors, 2 in each section at the back of the boxes.
Hackers who are skilled with years of experience could easily go rip out motors and add their own driver boards to the empty chassis, reducing price significantly! Even buying your parts from gold electronics would reduce your costs, hence why I indicate the cost of filling the electronics out varies.
@jinx - The chassis would not with-stand a human standing on it. There would require an upgrade in chassis to aluminum and motors. But all scalable if one has the motivation. A simple RC battery, 3000 mAh, 12V.
Walking speed. Those batteries last us 45min - 1 hour running but depends on payload.
You’re both obviously great hackers and hope to be working with you on your own ground drones soon!
@Oddbot - If you go today and look for a commercially available robotic chassis that can actually do something (get around our multi-level homes) I’ll stand in amazement if you can find one for less than a couple grand. You’re left with robotshop’s iRobot like flipper bots ranging in the thousands. The price jumps to $2K because I am buying all the parts that are “user friendly” and easy to get rolling with - at retail. My price breaks are on what matters, the mechanical chassis.
I cannot give away the exact motors as that’s apart of the Bill of Materials we are rewarding and wouldn’t be fair to the people who have already backed. I can tell you though that there are 6 drive motors, 2 in each section at the back of the boxes.
Hackers who are skilled with years of experience could easily go rip out motors and add their own driver boards to the empty chassis, reducing price significantly! Even buying your parts from gold electronics would reduce your costs, hence why I indicate the cost of filling the electronics out varies.
@jinx - The chassis would not with-stand a human standing on it. There would require an upgrade in chassis to aluminum and motors. But all scalable if one has the motivation. A simple RC battery, 3000 mAh, 12V.
Walking speed. Those batteries last us 45min - 1 hour running but depends on payload.
You’re both obviously great hackers and hope to be working with you on your own ground drones soon!
Most of the perks are for support/documentation, not the finished product. Maybe it would have more success a campaign to make a good documentation of all the material, instructions and laser cut patterns to make the robot. This way you wouldn’t have to worry about suppliers, late shipping or taxes. Documentations doesn’t have to be shipped april 2015, but can be released as soon as the campaign it’s funded.
This way you can release the docs and have money to pay for time spent:)
Most of the costs are in labor of assembling the units, support and the time it takes to CNC mill the parts.
I can release V1.0 of the documentation before April, 2015 (As soon as funding completes). I have SVGs for cutting, step by step assembly instructions and a bill of materials that I just so happen to find worked well.
I’m trying to think of a “Middle of the road” reward between the $100.00 and $300.00 reward options.
First, I like the design from the day I saw it the first time here at LMR.
I have to agree with some of the commenters that the price tag is the concerning part considering that there are no motors or electronics included. I see the complete packages will have it but still, not sure if I would hop on it.
Second, I would like to complain (no offence intended) the rule of content. As you post it as a “Robot” (which is not entirely wrong) you should/need/must add some more details about the build. If you do not wish that, then please post it under an appropriate forum category. (Note to the admin: Maybe we could have a dedicated Kickstarter category). We really had some nasty discussions about that in the past.
Robot projects require to share as many details as you can provide, that is the purpose of this website.
The sentence “You’re both obviously great hackers and hope to be working with you on your own ground drones soon!” made me laugh LOL. You should also do your homework and look up the profiles of the commenters to avoid such embarrassing comment I am sure OddBot and jinx had a chuckle too.
Good luck with your campaign. I hope you will get the funds to get it out to the people as it is quite a cool design.
What a cool design. I saw it before when you posted it as Arti and loved it then too. I am glad you are doing a kickstarter campaign on this and have your design patented. I look forward to seeing you be successful with this.
You have definitely solved a very difficult engineering issue with this design in a relatively cost effective package. But the price point is probably out of the realm for most builders. Unless I am starting a company and have some very cool idea which is going to make a lot of money, there is no way I could justify $2000 on this to my wife. That said, I have some cool ideas in mind where this would be perfect if I ever can get myself to build the bot and write the code…
Good luck with the kickstarter campaign. Maybe in few a years will you take my call?
I live in Italy and 2000€ is roughly the same a mid sized company would pay for a big wheeled ground drone, and good quality. Prices for worker robot range from 2k to 11k, and must be ruggedized and ready to work.But nobody uses robots yet!
Flying drones have almost absurd laws, requiring to spend 5k and almost a year just to get the qualification to fly, while for a ground drone the basic driver licence it’s enough.
A ground drone would be useful to bring heavy weights around or doing road keeping tasks.
I’d rather build one myself, because importing it in Italy would cost almost twice because of taxes and import duties
I am sure OddBot and jinx had a chuckle too.