- Goal: Provide an easy to use robot platform to schools for teaching technology, programming and robotics.
- Approach: Improve the Makeblock mBot robot: add a user friendly interface and make it move reliable and semi-autonomous. Read about this on mBot improvements in my Git repository
The Makeblock mBot robot provides great value for money but is not that easy to use. This opinion is supported by a very thorough review by Flashgamer. My idea is to develop a robot that can perform high level tasks such as a clerk in a warehouse driving around, picking up goods and delivering them. to achieve that i have to improve the standard mBot robot. I want the robot to be able to drive straight and make precise movements and turns. I try to achieve that by making it follow a black line on a white surface. This will allow me to draw a grid and let the robot drive and navigate on its own. Semi-autonomous capabilities will solve the timing problems and it will be easier to program.
Im now developing this idea step by step based on the mBot. I choose the mBot because it provides value for money and is extendible in software and hardware add-ons:
- Capabilities for navigation on a grid
** Add line following and crossing detection
** Program the robot to follow traffic rules - Improve movement and manipulation
** Add a gripper hand to pickup objects - Improve Programming interface
** Support for high level tasks
** Multi threading - Add a camera for image processing ()
I hope other people are interested and want to join this project.
Tauvic Ritter