We’re big fans of the Bioloid system.  We love the smart actuators and integrated sensor modules, but like many Bioloid users, we’ve lamented the lack of additional sensor inputs.  Luckily for us, Bioloid guru Jon Hylands felt the pain of the Bioloid community and created some devices to fill the void.  Thanks to Robotis’ published Dynamixel architecture, anyone who’s savvy with microcontrollers can create peripherals that will blend seamlessly with the stock Bioloid components.  Jon is as savvy as anyone, and we’re happy to be using and selling the hardware he’s created.  Anyway, here’s some cool stuff for all you Bioloid fans out there, or anyone interested in using Dynamixels in their own custom project.

USB Bus Board
	The USB Bus Board gives you virtual COM port access to the Dynamixel serial bus.  It has six connectors, but of course it supports a network of up to 254 Dynamixels.  It uses the FTDI transceiver chip, so if you’ve used other USB virtual COM port devices, there’s a good chance you already have the driver installed.  A great plug-and-play alternative to the USB2Dynamixel adapter.

Bioloid I/O Board
	This general-purpose I/O board gives your Bioloid robot the ability to connect to almost any analog (0-5 volt) sensor. It includes 6 analog inputs (10 bit resolution on each). It also includes four general digital I/O pins, and can control one or two DC motor controllers using either locked anti-phase or sign magnitude PWM.  Pretty cool.

Bioloid IMU
	In one package, you get 3 axes of acceleration measurement and 3 axes of gyroscopic measurement. It comes fully assembled, and ready to install into a stock Bioloid humanoid chest compartment.

FSR Foot Sensor Board
	Look closely at the soles of your Bioloid’s feet.  Those little round indentations were clearly designed to accept 0.2" FSR’s.  This interface board can read 4 FSR’s, enough for one foot.  The board fits neatly into the foot, and plugs into the Dynamixel network.  The kit includes the board, 4 FSR’s, and leads for the sensors.

If you have any questions, or you need advice about using these boards, go ahead and post about it in the TRC Forums.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 6th, 2008 at 1:39 pm and is filed under Front Page News, Fun Stuff, Hardware - Electronics, Humanoid Robots, New Kits / Products. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.