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The ArbotiX RX-Bridge expands the capabilities of the ArbotiX Robotcontroller by enabling the use of DX-117, RX-28, RX-64, and EX-106+ Dynamixel Servos. This add-on board converts your existing ArbotiX Robocontroller TTL serial ports into an RS-485 serial protocol compliant port.
The RX-Bridge answers the call for a high end, fully programmable controller for the higher end range of Dynamixels at a much lower pricepoint than other less-capable controllers on the market.
This is a Trossen Robotics exclusive; the infamous Bioloid bracket and frame set is now available in multiple colors! Do away with your old white brackets and spice up your latest Bioloid project with red, blue, or the much-asked-for black colored brackets and frames! I could rant and rave about how cool these are, but pictures do them justice much better than I can, check it out!
Anyone who’s ever tried painting their Bioloid brackets knows that it’s near impossible to get the colors to not flake and peel, but these are not painted! The actual plastic color has been changed and is resistant to scratching. Not all the Bioloid frame pieces are available in dyed colors due to their composition being different. To specify these different colors is simple; just click on the drop down menu on the product page of each bracket and select the wanted color!
This is the long anticipated Bioloid Premium Upgrade Kit! Note: These are limited edition with VERY few units in stock. Availability past this batch is unknown as of yet, pending announcement from Robotis.
This Upgrade Kit upgrades your existing Bioloid Comprehensive Kit to the Premium Humanoid Robot. It contains essentially the same components as the full Premium Kit, except for the 18x AX-12 Servos.
Get ‘em while they’re hot!
New upgrades! Giger now uses 10x EX-106+, 6x RX-64s, and 8x RX-28s for a total of 24 DOF.
Giger’s upgrades got finalized late Sunday night and I had a bit of time to sit down and start to work on the walking gaits (from scratch). The EX-106+ is roughly 4x more precise than all previous Dynamixels, so the positional values do not translate over well when upgrading from a previous model. What does that mean? It was far simpler to just start over rather than try to scale the values step by step. All new custom brackets used in the legs and feet, as well as new elbow/shoulder brackets and arm extensions. Brackets were designed in Autodesk Inventor 2008 and machined by Rapid Sheet Metal. It’s worth mentioning that all of the custom, as well as the stock, brackets and frames that are used in Giger’s arms and legs are available in our store on our Dynamixel Servo & Bracket page! Even his ankles/hip joints or his entire legs!
A lot of projects tend to only show updates after many dozens and/or hundreds of hours of progress, but I like to show the little steps as I feel it gives one a better view of the evolution of a project and what goes into making a robot work. Keep in mind; I have this gait tuned to a very slow rate so that I can work on the balance and COG shifting correctly, it can then be sped up to a more realistic, useful speed. Here’s a short video of my initial walking gait progress (about 2 hours of programming work so far) on Giger 2.0:
We’ve been a bit quiet around here lately, mostly because we have our heads buried and are hard at work at bringing you guys some awesome new robotics products and kits! Wanted to take some time to showcase a new reworked section of our site that helps builders like you build your robots easier. Our Robot Servos & Brackets section has been completely revamped, pairing up the servos with compatible brackets and frames (tons of new varieties have been added, as well as more to come).
The Robotis Dynamixel Servos section should be of particular intrest, as we now stock individual Bioloid Frames as well as every type of DX/RX/EX Series Brackets and Frames.
Even our Hobby Servos section got a revamp, now offering Micro, Standard, and Giant Scale PWM Hobby Servos and compatible brackets!
We also started rounding up some cool user projects to demonstrate what can be done with these awesome actuators, which can be found on various related product pages. Here are a few examples!
Our good friend Jon Hylands, of HUV Robotics (maker of all those awesome 3rd party Bioloid accessories), has recently started a new 4-legged Bioloid based walker named Roz. He is currently using an arbotiX Robocontroller, but has plans to eventually migrate over to a custom Gumstix-Overo platform. He is utilizing the upcoming NUKE (Nearly Universal Kinematics Engine) on the arbotiX, which will be available in public beta in the near future, and is really coming along in his walking gait progress. This has to be one of the fastest AX-12+ servo based walkers I have seen yet, check it out!
The long awaited Bioloid Premium Kit has arrived! Thanks to all of those who pre-ordered, your orders are being shipped today with Free 2nd Day Air shipping!
We managed to pick up a handful of extra kits for those who missed the Pre-Order. Quantities are extremely limited and available on a first come, first serve basis. Order now while there is still time before Christmas!
For those of you wondering about the availability and release date of the Bioloid Premium Upgrade Kit, which will allow Bioloid Comprehensive Kit owners to take advantage of all the awesome new features, these kits are estimated to be available in February. We will keep you updated!
Our good friend Jon Hylands has finally returned to producing his widely popular 3rd party Bioloid add-on & accessory boards, and they are now in stock and ready to ship! We have had a huge demand for these and many people were disappointed when production was stopped, but we and surely many others will be glad to have them back.
The Bioloid USB Bus Board provides a transparent and simple connection to the AX-12+ Bioloid Bus. This board allows your PC to communicate with Bioloid bus devices (AX-12, AX-S1, IMU, etc) using a USB cable (not included) at speeds of up to 1.0 Mbps.
This Bioloid 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 drive one or two DC motors using either locked anti-phase or sign magnitude PWM.
This Bioloid Foot Pressure Sensor includes one board, four .2″ FSR pressure sensors designed to be attached to the Bioloid foot, and the wiring necessary to connect the sensors to the board.
Pressure sensors on the bottom of your biped’s feet will allow the robot to sense whether or not it is in balance if it is on a smooth flat surface.
We’ve been busily preparing for the iHobby 2009 show this week, but I figured I would share a little demo video of Giger. He now sports a TinyCylon eye from DaleWheat.com, and has a few new fighting moves up his sleeve, ready for some fights at Chibotica during iHobby! Walking gait is still obviously a work in progress, but what is being demonstrated in the video is the ability to pan/tilt the torso while walking, which makes the walking gait even more unsteady. Enough jabbering, here’s a bit of video!
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