New tutorials are available.

We’ve recently added new videos, tutorials and articles highlighting the process of designing and building your own robot!

How to Build a Robot

On our new How to Build a Robot support page, we highlight the entire design process in how you select your mechanical components and control system. We’ve also recently participated in an IEEE presentation on UGV System Design that is definitely worth a read!

How to Build our IG32 ATRs and Compact 4WD ATRs

We’ve added new instructional step-by-step videos on how to build our standard IG32 ATRs and our compact ATRs

An IEEE RAS Presentation by Jason Traud

On October 7th, 2013 SuperDroid Robot’s Jason Traud gave a presentation on the basics of UGV System design at North Carolina State University as part of an IEEE Robotics and Automation Society meeting. The presentation covered how you define and determine the scope of a project, motor and battery sizing, motor mixing algorithms, Omni-directional robotics and a case study on UGV system design using the new Trekker2 development platform.

Please see the links below for the presentation slides and presenter notes.

• UGV System Design Presentation
• Presentation with Presenter Notes

Here’s an inside peak into one of our side projects, the Trekker2. The Trekker robot kit was one of the original robots we sold to the general public. Now we’re looking at refreshing the robot in a big way. The Trekker2 Development Platform will support four mecanum wheels on a heavy duty aluminum chassis. This isn’t your garden variety “PCB Robot” platform our competitors are selling. The Trekker2 is definitively more powerful and sturdier than any other low-cost offering.

The Trekker2 will also offer a color touch screen for user input and will be powered by the Arduino platform. Our goal is to provide a powerful robot that can fit into most people’s budget that teaches the end user how hardware and software come together to make robots happen.

Stay tuned!

FingerTech’s 2.125 inch Mecanum Wheels

The four Mecanum wheels are each connected to a separate motor with independent control. The robot can move forward, backward and turn just like it would with four regular wheels. The configuration of rollers at 45° also allows the robot to translate sideways, and through a combination of movements, drive in any direction – even while spinning!

Adjacent corners of the robot use mirrored wheels so that they can freely roll outward from the center. This splits the force into two vectors, one forward/backward and one right/left. When the wheels on one side are spun in opposite directions, the forward and backward vectors cancel out while both sideways vectors add up. Doing the reverse with the other two wheels results in four added sideways vectors.

Control can be accomplished with a microcontroller or simply using an R/C transmitter! You can use two channel mixers, a 4-channel Mecanum drive mixer, or your own programmed PCB.

For more information about control and usage of mecanum wheels, please see our Vectoring Robot Support Page

SmartGPU2 by Vizic Technologies

SuperDroid robots is an official distributer of Vizic Technologies’ SmartGPU2.

The SmartGPU 2 is a powerful easy to use, intellectual property, graphics, audio, touchscreen and full datalogger processor embedded in a state-of-the-art ARM Cortex-M3 chip; this is mounted on a board with a touchscreen color LCD. It’s aimed to help developers to create advanced Graphical User Interfaces (GUIs) in a very easy way, the Smart GPU 2 processor doesn’t need any configuration or programming on itself, it’s a slave device that only receives orders, reducing and facilitating dramatically the code size, complexity and processing load in the master host processor. It features high end FAT32 format data management functions (Data Logger) to create even more advanced applications in just minutes, not days.

The Smart GPU 2 offers a simple yet effective serial interface UART to any host microcontroller that can communicate via a serial port(Arduino, Raspberry PI, mbed, PSOC4, PIC, Atmel, Freescale, STM, FPGA, PCs(RS232), even 8051 and low end 8 bit microcontrollers. All processor functions are received using simple commands via the serial interface. Smart GPU 2 processor can bring graphics, audio, touch, etc to any application or project without the need of having experience in handling LCDs and graphics algorithms.

SmartGPU2 has all the functions of the best seller “SmartGPU1″, but its now 20-30 times more faster + Audio capable(CD quality) + Video Playback(60fps) + LFN(long file names) + JPG images support(decompression) + 16Kb embedded EEPROM + integrated RTC(real time clock) + new geometry functions + TONS of new features!!!

We can guarantee that this is the most advanced yet easy to use Graphics Processor you’ll find on the market… …You’ll love it!

Documentation:

• Description Sheet
• Datasheet
• Music CD File Extraction Tutorial
• Command Set

SmartGPU2 Libraries:

• SmartGPU2 – Arduino UNO/DUE Library
• Mbed

SmartGPU2 Source Code/Examples:

• SmartGPU2 Arduino Examples
• Mbed

Windows PC Interface (for use with USB-UART SX):

• SmartGPU2 Windows PC Interface

Pololu DRV8825 Stepper Motor Driver

Here at SuperDroid Robots we not only develop and design Tactical Robots and robotic solutions but we strive to educate. Our stepper motor and motor controller support page will run you through the basics of how stepper motors work but also connect you with basic and inexpensive drivers and motors to get you started with your own projects. Please see the link below for more information

Stepper Motor Support Page

New Stepper Motors Available

• Stepper Motor Bipolar 200 Steps per Rev 35×36mm 2.7V 1A per Phase
• Stepper Motor Bipolar 200 Steps per Rev 35×28mm 10V 0.5A per Phase
• Stepper Motor Bipolar 200 Steps per Rev 28×45mm 4.5V 0.67A per Phase
• Stepper Motor Unipolar Bipolar 200 Steps per Rev 42×48mm 4V 1.2 A per Phase
• Sanyo Pancake Stepper Motor 200 Steps per Rev 42×18.6mm 5.4V 1A per Phase

New Stepper Motor Drivers Available

• A4988 Stepper Motor Driver Carrier with Voltage Regulators
• A4988 Stepper Motor Driver Carrier
• DRV8825 Stepper Motor Driver Carrier, High Current

FDNY Custom Built LT-F

The FDNY approached SuperDroid Robots back in September 2011 and asked us if we wanted to come to NYC to demonstrate our robots. We accepted the invite and went to NY and participated in many tests and trials. Several other robot manufactures were present at the same time. FDNY selected us and one other large company to participate in a training exercise in West Virginia. We travelled to West Virginia and our robot was used in several training exercises including search and rescue of victims, search for hazardous conditions, etc. We used the robot in collapsed structures, search tractor trailers, climbing over and under rubble, etc. At the end of the exercise FDNY selected our LT-F robot as their choice.

We were then requested to qualify the robot via NIST (National Institute of Standards and Testing) for robot qualification. We first went to the Maryland facility and completed the evaluation. From the testing we saw some things that could be improved and developed the LT2-F. The next step was going to Disaster City, Tx. Disaster City is a training facility run by Texas A&M. NIST and FDNY were present along with many other robot manufactures and other fire departments. The testing went on for 4 days and went real well. In the end FDNY awarded SuperDroid Robots the contract to build them a customized LT2-F. After completion of the robot, it was brought back to the Maryland NIST facility for acceptance testing. Then delivered to FDNY along with a day of training on July 30, 2013. It may sound like we are bragging, because we are! We are very proud that FDNY was confident in our product and services. We were the only vendor capable and willing to meet their requirements. Contact us with your custom request. We will provide model XYZ, but we are more than willing to customize any robot to meet your needs at an affordable price.

Below are three videos showcasing the acceptance testing our robots endured for acceptance

National Geographic – Serengeti Lion Project – The Robot

National Geographic’s photographer Michael “Nick” Nichols and videographer Nathan Williamson commissioned one of our robots as part of the Serengeti Lion Project. Nichols is an award-winning photographer who has traveled the world and shot many features for National Geographic. National Geographic spoke to Nichols about his work and what it was like to spend intimate moments with African lions.

In the multimedia presentation Nichols and Williamson re-create eh feast and famine of the plains; the purring, bleating, and roaring of these cats; the fragile balance of lion survival. It’s only a slight exaggeration to say that Nichols learned to think like a lion, to game their moves, and to phtograph them with an intimacy that comes from an undisguised feeling of kinship.

- National Geographic Magazine

Read More:
National Geographic
IEEE Spectrum
CNET

Win a Free Arduino Powered WiFi Robot

To celebrate our 10 years of business we’re giving away a FREE WiFi Arduino Robot to our Facebook, Twitter and Google+ followers! The robot is powered by an Arduino Mega 2560 and is equipped with Mecanum wheels for complete Omni-directional movement, a 4500mAhr NiMH battery for long life, on-board router for WiFi control and sweeping sonar sensors for autonomous control!

To submit feature requests for the robot, tweet @SDRobots or post on our Facebook or Google+ accounts. The final source code will be shared on our website so be creative, have fun, and good luck!

To enter the contest, simply like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter or Google+.

Detailed Robot Product Listing
Contest Rules and Information

Meet our new 4WD Tactical Scissor Lift Robot. This is a great surveillance robot that allows you to see over countertops, on top of beds, through windows, etc that most low profile robots just cannot achieve. The 4WD platform is equipped with 10 inch pneumatic tires that allows it to navigate over most terrains. The PTZ camera has a 27x optical zoom so all details of any situation can be observed. The tactical remote allows the opperateor to control functions of the robot and see everything with the PTZ camera.

Available options include: High Power LED Lights, PA System, and your choice of digital, analog or COFDM radios.

The robot stands at 21″ tall with the scissor lift collapsed and 54.5″ tall when extended.

This robot was developed for Law Enforcement and Military purposes but can be purchased and used by anyone. The robot can also be customized with HAZMAT sensors, additional cameras, or sensors. Please contact us if you need the robot customized.

Product Listing: 4WD Enclosed Tactical Robot with Scissor Lift and PTZ camera