Potential Educational Robot Platforms

Fancy little rover - Kevin Wang

http://www.robotshop.com/dfrobotshop-rover-tracked-robot-basic-kit-6.html

• Contains temperature and light sensors
• Comes with Arduino microcontroller and motor drivers

Sparkfun rover - Blake Elias

http://www.sparkfun.com/products/10336

• Lacks a controller and motor drivers
• Includes built-in encoders

ARM-based platform

http://focus.ti.com/mcu/docs/mcuorphan.tsp?contentId=114871&DCMP=evalbot-2&HQS=Other+PR+evalbot-2-pr-tf

iRobot - Q

http://store.irobot.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2586253

• Pricey

Cheap platforms from various Chinese suppliers - Alex Carrillo

http://www.aliexpress.com/wholesale/wholesale-arduino-robot-chassis.html

• Cheap
• Questionably cheap

Adventure Bot - Eric (will look into it further)

http://custobots.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=39&products_id=390&zenid=3268c274200f7cbedd116c1643ba58a9

• Cheap
• Comes pre-built, and can be reprogrammed
• Uses Arduino
• Has IR sensors

Scribbler & Fluke - Blake

http://www.betterbots.com/

http://wiki.roboteducation.org/Main_Page

(Used by Vern Ceder and others to teach programming)

• Pre-built
• Program in Python, Java or C++
• Free text / lesson plans designed for it
• Requires blue-tooth adapter on computer to load code
• IR line sensors and obstacle sensors, motor stall sensors, light sensors, indicator LEDs, speaker, pen-holding port to draw as it moves