Pseudonymous maker “huebner5000,” hereafter merely “Huebner,” has designed a robotic platform for academia and extra which goals to be simply reproducible utilizing makerspace-level manufacturing instruments: SPARKY.
“SPARKY (Saint Paul Tutorial Robotics Equipment) is an open educational robotics platform with the purpose of constructing robotics accessible to all college students,” Huebner explains of the modular design. “It’s user-assembled from makerspace-manufacturable elements (3D printed and laser lower) and extensively out there industrial off-the-shelf low-cost elements.”
SPARKY is a laser-cut and 3D-printed open supply robotics platform aimed squarely at schooling. (📷: huebner5000)
Designed as a two-wheel robotic, the SPARKY chassis is produced from laser-cut wooden and 3D-printed brackets and mounts, all held along with M3 bolts and nuts. Its chassis is roofed in holes, they usually’re not only for present: the grid is designed for expandability, making it straightforward to mount new {hardware} utilizing extra M3 bolts.
The robotic’s normal load-out consists of an ultrasonic distance sensor, line-following infrared sensors, a colour sensor, and a Neopixel RGB LED strip, plus two DC motors with axle encoders and a micro servo — although this, Huebner explains, is all customizable.
Whereas the SPARKY platform goals to be microcontroller-agnostic, to permit builders to choose no matter they’re most accustomed to or is most simply or cheaply acquired, the usual construct makes use of a Feather-format board and CircuitPython or Arduino firmware. The robotic is managed through Bluetooth Low Vitality (BLE) utilizing Adafruit’s Bluefruit Join App, and a FeatherWing motor driver used to save lots of area. “Raspberry Pi Pico and Arduino configurations are additionally doable,” Huebner notes.
The majority of the robotic’s chassis is produced from plywood, with mounting holes at common intervals for straightforward enlargement. (📷: huebner5000)
“[SPARKY is] designed to attenuate plastic the place doable,” Huebner provides of the robotic’s design issues. “[It can be] made with bioplastic and renewable sources (plywood). Native makerspace manufacturing reduces transportation footprint.”
Huebner has revealed a information to constructing your individual SPARKY on Instructables, full with the laser-cutting and 3D-printing information; these are additionally out there on Printables, underneath the reciprocal Inventive Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 Worldwide license.