Climbing stairs is a tricky concept for most robots, but Ground Drone has been re-invented to conquer stairs, bumps and more. Through Kickstarter, Ground Drone hopes to bring innovation to enthusiasts, tinkerers and hobbyists who want to build their own projects on top of a robotic mobility platform.
The Ground Drone design uses a modular system with suspension joints to flexibly articulate up and over a staircase with constant traction applied to the surface. The Ground drone is designed to go over numerous terrain obstacles, like fallen trees, dirt piles and rocks. Additionally, if you want your drone to be smaller or larger in size, just scale the chassis sections smaller or larger while retaining the ratio. If there’s a section you want to remove or add, simply customize it to your needs by connecting two joints together to extend the platform to various sizes. You can also add another triangle unit to the back to create an omni-directional ground drone. Lastly, a suspension shock pushes each section down and forward keeping the drone in constant contact with the surface for maximum traction.
The technology provided avoids extra actuators, reduces part complexity, and simplifies electrical wiring and mobility programming by incorporating the intelligence in the articulated join system. The three boxes, that remain primarily empty, is where you can put whatever motors and actuators you want.
The Level III Kit includes the following items:
- 12V, 3000 mAh Ni-Cad battery x 1
- Battery charger x 1
- 152 RPM 12V Pitsco motors/hubs x 6
- A complete set of Lynx Motion tank treads x 8 packs
- A complete set of Lynx Motion Cogs x 14
- DX6e R/C transceiver and receiver x 1
- Sabertooth 25×2 Driver Board x 1
- ARTI Chassis Hardware x 1
- Arti Chassis x 1
You can get a ground drone rolling for about $200, but you can upgrade the kit as far as you’d like.
Filed Under: Rapid prototyping, Robotics • robotic grippers • end effectors
