RobotShop is proud to announce the immediate availability of the DFRobotShop Rover, an Arduino-compatible robotic tracked platform. At an 89.99 USD price-tag, this is by far the most affordable, programmable mobile robot in the market.

The DFRobotShop Rover is a versatile mobile robot tank based on the popular Arduino Duemilanove.  It incorporates all the Duemilanove features (since it uses a surface mount ATMega328),  including shield compatibility, and is supplemented with (1) an on-board DC step-up that allows it to be easily powered from small power sources such as AA batteries,  (2) a dual H-bridge DC-motor controller (L293B), and (3) an APC220 and Bluetooth serial interface connector for telemetry and radio control. As an addition it also features a temperature and light sensors that can be readily connected to analog inputs on the ATMega328 for immediate use. This Arduino-compatible platform rides on the popular Tamiya twin motor gearbox and the Tamiya track and wheel set.  This created a low-cost traction system that has been tested to carry over 2 kg without issues.

- Robotshop Blog

Let us know what would you like to do with this very cool Arduino tank.

Via RobotShop Blog.

RobotGrrl has been busy refurbishing an old robot of hers. It is not the first time that her Technorobot has changed jobs: it has been an emotional line follower prototype, a snowplow, and now it became an XBee messenger robot.

Refurbishing it was OK, it only took 4 hours. The only thing that was drastically broken was the drive axle. To fix it, I used some Lego axles. 

The robot now uses an Arduino, and is powered off of USB. The motor is driven with the Adafruit Motor Shield (I plan to add more motors to the robot someday). The motor is powered from an Adafruit mintyboost.

- Erin

The HD time-lapse below shows her progress:

Via RoboGrrl

Clinton Blackmore form the Southern Alberta Robotics Enthusiasts club put together some pretty neat software to control Lego NXT motors and sensors by using the Arduino microcontroller.

He is using the Mindsesors Multiplexer for NXT Motors coupled with an Arduino Compatible Seeeduino in order to control a small robot made from Lego NXT parts, read NXT encoders, and more.  The code for the Arduino can be found in the NXT I2C Devices For Arduino Project Page.

The possibilities that this enables are almost endless.  Especially when considering that now Arduino Shields can be used in order to extend the capabilities of the Lego NXT parts.

Via RobotShop Blog.

Oleg put together this pretty neat robotic arm that he can control using a standard USB mouse. He used a Lynxmotion robotic arm with a wrist upgrade, an Arduino as the brain, a USB Host shield in order to interface a regular computer mouse, and a custom made servo motor controller.

This is a rather clever design and, as shown in the video below, all the degrees of freedom of the arm can be controlled by combining the motion of the mouse and the scroll wheel, and the clicking of the mouse buttons.

Via Hack a Day (via Circuits@Home)

Today is a great day in the history of GoRobotics.net. On this 10 year anniversary,  RobotShop has taken on the mission of continuing the legacy or Mr.  William Cox, the founding father of GoRobotics.net, by maintaining and further expanding this community by continuing to post interesting robotics projects, news and by sharing our experience for everyone to enjoy.

Just like William, we at RobotShop are truly passionate about robots and happy to be part of a community that is equally enthusiastic and interested in everything robotic. We are happy to join GoRobotics.net, and to tackle the challenge of bringing you (yes, you) the latest and greatest developments in this rapidly expanding field.

Besides reporting on cool robotic projects selectively chosen from around the internet, we will initially publish the How to Make a Robot, Grand Tutorial Series. These are going to be a series of detailed tutorials on how to get started with robotics by guiding you through the process of making a simple, general purpose mobile robot. It’s our way of thanking you for your sustained interest and enthusiasm.

We are thrilled about this new opportunity to reach out to the GoRobotics community. As always, please leave a message with your thoughts/concerns/questions as we are eager to hear back from you.

Long live GoRobotics.net!