Add Lidar Vision to Your Robot

Techniques that used to be available for multi-million defence projects only are becoming more affordable. Take lidar, short for Light Detection And Ranging, a 3D laser scanning method for mapping the environment. Initially intended for satellite tracking, today you can buy a miniature lidar for under €100. Add the software from this project and away you go (your robot, of course).

Help your children dream STEAM! Neither a toy nor a gadget, this WaterColorBot is an attractive educational project, involving girls, kids, adults, and teachers into active robotics and creative making. It not only provides opportunities for young people to build and learn about computer numerical control and to learn how to program a robot. It can be used far beyond that horizon. The WaterColorBot V2.0 is essentially a specialized pen plotter, using watercolors to paintbrush onto paper before your eyes. It dips its brush in water, goes and gets the right color. Standard watercolor paints and paper are used (no specialized supplies required).

Boston Dynamics produce an impressive range of highly sophisticated robotic machines, the latest of which is the ‘Handle 2.0’, an autonomous robot ready to clock-on for its next shift lugging and stacking boxes in a warehouse. Handle 2 is a self-balancing two wheeled robot fitted with a single grabber arm...

This kit contains all the parts for four-legged robot with remote control. The robot is powered by twelve servos that are controlled by an Arduino Nano board. The remote control also contains a Nano board and a joystick for controlling the robot.

It can sometimes be difficult to weave your way through busy public thoroughfares on foot but think how much more difficult it is for users of electric wheelchairs. Imagine if the chair was equipped with sensors and used adaptive AI control to provide obstacle avoidance and autonomous steering capability. That would offer users a whole new level of independence...

Mouser Electronics, Inc., the authorized global distributor with the newest semiconductors and electronic components, is now stocking the BMI088 high-performance inertial measurement unit (IMU) from Bosch Sensortec.

The drone and autonomous robot industry is rapidly growing. Kevin Sartori talks about Auterion’s mission to extend the reach of open-source technologies to meet enterprise-grade requirements of companies in the commercial drone space.

Recently, during an event in the vicinity of Moscow, the company presented its answer to the electric vehicles from Tesla…

The YDLidar X4 is a very affordable Lidar that is mainly intended for applications in robots. The software is targeted at Visual Studio 2010 and there are demo applications for Windows and Linux. All necessary libraries are freely available, of course. The Lidar measures 360 degrees around and detects obstacles from 12 cm to more than 10 meters.

We have a look at the ‘Smart Video Car Kit for Raspberry Pi’ manufactured by SunFounder, a kit for a small Raspberry-Pi-based Wi-Fi-remote-controlled car with color video camera. We built one and tried it; here are our findings and tips.