For decades robotic exoskeletons were the subject of science fiction novels and movies. But in recent years, exoskeleton technology has made huge progress towards reality and exciting research projects and new companies have surfaced.

Typical applications of today’s exoskeletons are stroke therapy or support of users with a spinal cord injury, or industrial applications, such as back support for heavy lifting or power tool operation. And while the field is growing quickly, it is currently not easy to get involved. Learning materials or exoskeleton courses or classes are not widely available yet. This has made it difficult, as learning about exoskeletons is not possible by theory alone, but ideally, involves practical hands-on experience (feel it understand it). Unfortunately, the necessary exoskeleton hardware is expensive and not usually available to students or hobbyists wanting to explore the field.

This is the motivation behind the EduExo kit, a 3D-printable, Arduino-powered robotic exoskeleton now on Kickstarter. The goal of the project is to make exoskeleton technology available, affordable and understandable for anyone interested.

The EduExo is a robotic exoskeleton kit that you assemble and program yourself. The kit contains all the hardware you need to build an elbow exoskeleton. An accompanying handbook contains a tutorial that will guide you through the different assembly steps. In addition, the handbook provides background information on exoskeleton history, functionality and technology to offer a well-rounded introduction to the field.

The kit is being developed for the following users:

• High school and college students who want to learn about robotic exoskeleton technology to prepare themselves for a career in exoskeletons and wearable robotics.
• Makers and hobbyists who are looking for an interesting and entertaining project in a fascinating field.
• Teachers and professors who want to set up exoskeleton courses or labs. The EduExo classroom set provides additional teaching material to facilitate the preparation of a course.

The main challenge of the project was to design exoskeleton hardware that is both cheap enough to be affordable for a high school student, but still complex enough to be an appropriate learning platform that teaches relevant and state of the art exoskeleton technology.

To lower the price, mostly off-the-shelf components are used. The hardware is a simple one degree of freedom design for the elbow joint. The EduExo box comes fully equipped and contains the handbook, exoskeleton structure, preassembled cuffs, an Arduino Microcontroller to control the device, a force sensor (and amplifier) to measures the human-robot interaction, a servo motor for the actuation and all the small parts needed to assemble and wire the exoskeleton.

The exoskeleton’s structure is 3D printable and users with access to a 3D printer can produce the parts themselves. Therefore, a maker edition is available for people who prefer doing everything themselves.

The software required to program the exoskeleton and to create computer games can be downloaded for free (Arduino IDE to program the Microcontroller and the Unity 3D game engine).

Despite the comparatively simple design, the EduExo will teach its users many interesting aspects of exoskeleton technology. This includes how the mechanical design resembles the human anatomy, how to connect the sensors and the electronics board, and how to design and program an exoskeleton control system. Further, it explains how to connect the exoskeleton to a computer and learn how to use it as a haptic device in combination with a self-made virtual reality simulation or computer game.

A ‘muscle control’ extension is offered separately that explains how to measure the exoskeleton user’s muscle activity and use it to control the device.

The development of the kit is currently in its final phase and it is already possible to order it through the ongoing Kickstarter campaign. Shipping is scheduled for August 2017.

Additional information can be found on the EduExo website: www.eduexo.com

Robotics is becoming more accessible for many people, but the complexities of legged robots mean they remain beyond the reach of most consumers. The complex mechanics, electronics and code algorithms make these robots much more difficult to simply get working. Four legged robots are especially difficult, they might seem very stable but simply lifting a leg up can cause the robot to fall.

QuadBot is an open-source, 3D printed robot that aims to change this.

QuadBot is suitable for makers of any skill level, it works straight out the box, and can be programmed using scratch based blocks. And when you’re ready to explore robotics further, every aspect of QuadBot can be changed, from the mechanical design to individual lines of Arduino code. Once you’ve mastered walking, you can add sensors to the board, and make QuadBot avoid obstacles, follow light and even dance to music!

QuadBot was released on Kickstarter and comes either as a bare bones (3D Print it yourself) kit, or as a full kit. Within the first week, QuadBot reached 100% of the £12,500 goal, and is nearly at £20,000 at the time of writing!

QuadBot is the creation of Jack Scott-Reeve and Josh Elijah, two graduates of Engineering who felt that Robotics Education needed a change. Now that it is funded (and with 5 weeks still left on the campaign), they can focus on improving the product for our early backers. This means adding goals like extra colours, sensor packs and improved learning resources. However, among many Kickstarter campaigns there’s a tendency to overstretch and under deliver, so Elijah and Reeve are letting the product sell on its base features rather than promising massive additions to the design.

Nevertheless, QuadBot has massive future potential for expansion and increased capability, whether using modular design to create QuadBot sensor modules or integrating a Raspberry Pi onto the board to allow Python coding and vision processing.

One emerging market for this technology is robotics in schools. Teaching programming is becoming more common in UK schools, as are products to augment learning like the BBC Microbit. QuadBot could potentially be integrated with existing products like Microbit and the Raspberry Pi, to bring practical robotics into schools. With large distributors like RS Components interested, we could soon see QuadBot being distributed internationally, and with a curriculum to go along with it.

At present it’s hard to say in what direction Elijah and Reeve will go with QuadBot but, with a fully funded Kickstarter already, it’s likely we’ll see many new iterations and designs in the near future!

Click here to visit the QuadBot website.

If you enjoyed this article, you might also be interested in:

• Design, simulate and build a custom drone
• A new quadrupedal robot, the ANYmal
• Make your own Dtto Modular Robot – Assembly instructions (Part 1 of 3)
• mROBerTO: The modular millirobot for swarm behavior studies

See all the latest robotics news on Robohub, or sign up for our weekly newsletter.

Fully designed and assembled in China, Dobot, a new desktop, 4-axis, stepper motor, high precision robotic arm has launched its first Kickstarter campaign.

https://youtu.be/UcknDFiCxG4

Feature highlights:

●  High mechanical accuracy (0.02mm)
●  High repeat precision (0.2mm), 50 times better than uArm
●  Stepper motor equipped with high accuracy reducer
●  High strength aluminium alloy surface and processed by anodic oxidation treatment
●  Mechanical structure assembled by the state of art CNC cutting technology, ensuring its superb agility, stability and durability
●  Seven control methods including PC, mobile app, voice, vision, leap motion, geature and EEG (mind control, see demo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxU7ZhStuPA)
●  Easy click-and-drag control interface for beginners and also programmable for advanced makers, using Processing, Arduino, and C/C++ as primary languages
●  Affordable price starting from $399, making it affordable for both makers and the general public, Dobot’s design is a good fit for desktop applications.

Tech specifications:

●  Number of Axes: 4
●  Weight: 3kg
●  Payload: 500g
●  Range: 270 degree rotation
●  Position repeatability: 0.2mm
●  Material: aluminium alloy 6061
●  Controller: Arduino Mega2560
●  Communication: UART/Bluetooth
●  Power Supply: 12V 5A DC

The team has premiered its prototype at the 2015 Shenzhen Maker Faire, where it received positive feedback from makers, robot experts and open hardware communities.

“The motion is really precise, it’s not just a toy, it can also be used to build stuff,” says the CEO of Arduino, Massimo Banzi.

Dobot was founded in June 2014 by a group of industrial robot engineers based in Shenzhen, China. All the founders acquired extensive industry experience in robotics before joining the team. They have a firm belief that industrial precision robots should be on everyone’s desktop.

… Originally developed to revive shop class in American schools by providing a very capable CNC fabricating machine but stalled by government funding delays, Otherfab’s new CNC Othermill and simple software is designed for ease of use and flexible operation.
… It’s not too late to subscribe to the Kickstarter campaign.

Henrik Christensen on “What funding scheme is the most conducive to creating a robotics industry?”

The public should in most cases not subsidize companies. Tax payers should not be venture capitalists. The new wave of Lean Startup going around the world is a great model to ensure that …

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The most successful (and enjoyable) funding scheme I ever took part in was through a science outreach organization that distributed ‘Angel Cards’. We would actively seek out people who were frustrated but brilliant and give them a $10,000 US a month Visa card to spend on their research “hobby”. No other paperwork. At the end of 6 months we’d assess what they’d done and up their card to $20,000/month if good, or we’d just cancel the card, thank them, and walk away.

26% turned out something amazing, and not always in robotics, but that was fine. It was an excellent integrity test proctoring scientific conviction, but it’s exhausting for the managers, which is why we had to recruit successful candidates to take our place when we moved on. Regrettably the program stopped a decade ago, but for a while there it was like Santa Claus for innovation – an option to explore exotic, tangental paths without consequence, and I’m glad to see many of our docents have diversified profitably.

Money well spent. Always hoped someone else would take it up, and it seems a form of it has with the net-wide Kickstarter trend now raging. Rather than indenture a researcher to servitude under a venture-capital scheme or the bureaucracy of government funding, pre-customers can buy into a future product on promises and universal visibility. The personal investment is small, the risk distributed, and some of the products look promising.

Though crowd sourcing lacks the ‘blue-sky’ appeal of pure research outreach, I feel the best robotic funding scheme at present is to invest in cool and visible crowd-sourced ventures.

Or you could fund my ass. A cool hundred mil otta do it. :)

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Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it’s the Robot Dragonfly from TechJect. Developed over four years by researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology for the US Air Force, the researchers are now investigating commercial and consumer opportunities through their recently released campaign on the crowd-funding website, IndieGoGo.

True consumer (as opposed to military or hobbyist) UAV’s first truly “took to the skies” with the release of Parrot’s iPhone-controlled AR.Drone in 2010, which has, for the last two years, been relatively unchallenged. Now, with the help of crowd-sourced funding, new takes on consumer UAVs are emerging, some more playful, and some more hobbyist oriented.

Few however are as innovative as the Robot Dragonfly, whose patented and bio-inspired drive/flight system gives it the ability to hover like a helicopter, and dynamically switch to a “gliding mode”, more like a conventional fixed-wing craft. As with all crowd-sourced campaigns, the Robot Dragonfly is not yet a finished or proven product, however if product simulations and current prototypes are to be believed (both shown in following video), its four wings and light weight (25g) should offer an interesting array of dynamic movements and flight possibilities not achievable with conventional UAV designs.

The following promotional video was released by the group along with the crowd-funding campaign. This video gives an overview of the Robot Dragonfly’s development at the Georgia Institute of Technology, takes a look at the existing research prototypes and shows simulations of the final version performing in a number of different situations.

The group are targeting a broad range of markets with their initial release and have suggested applications in Augmented-Reality Gaming, Aerial Photography, Telepresence, Personal and Commercial Security, and in the Military. For more information, see the Robot Dragonfly IndieGoGo campaign, where team-members are actively answering questions and responding to suggestions.

Kickstarter’s recent decision making it very difficult for hardware projects to use the platform just highlights two very useful things to know about crowdfunding. Firstly, not all crowdfunding platforms are equal. And secondly, the decision to disallow renderings and multiple product rewards only affects the lazy kickstarter projects that probably weren’t going to be successful anyway. Lazy crowdfunding projects make two big mistakes; like hoping that the platform will do all the marketing; or using the project as a learning curve in design, manufacturing and delivery.

First of all, there are dozens of crowdfunding platforms these days (Kickstarter, IndieGoGo, When You Wish, FundaGeek, Invest.in, Launcht, Catarse, WeFund, Pozible, Quirky, 33seeds, RocketHub, peerbacker, etc.). Each favours a certain community or marketing approach and some have an approval process. But when push comes to shove, it’s about how much equity you give up, what charges you pay, how long does it take to get your money, and whether or not you can accept donations or have an any funds model.

There are 3 good reasons to turn to crowdfunding for your robot and they describe 3 completely different sorts of projects. Which sort of project you are will determine what sort of crowdfunding platform you choose.

1. You have a big mail list already and can use crowdfunding as a preorder shopfront and also a way of building your community… the community that you already have! This works really well for many musicians, video game and comic book artists, some of whom have raised pretty big funds. This will work for robot or hardware projects when you have a track record of product delivery, are some kind of superstar, or maybe moonlight for a magazine or media company. You can probably ask for $50,000+.

2. You are testing your market strategy, or maybe your marketers. You might need to do several different campaigns. You might need to get some of your funding elsewhere. You definitely don’t want to underprice and overpromise, so try to find your product market fit while also nailing down design specs and your market channel’s price point. You can probably ask for $5,000 – $20,000. Yes, you might need to put your molds on your maxxed out credit cards, but you are much more likely to attract angel backing if you can demonstrate customer interest.

3. You have a dream. This is the heart of crowdfunding. Use it! Sell us on your dream and send us nothing but stickers and t-shirts. Send us updates and a chance to join your community of dreamers. You can probably raise up to $10,000 to fund your prototype. This is a creative project. Use rewards that are an experience, a souvenir, a chance to share the excitement. It’s also a great way to get some customer validation before going any further. If you can’t find people to fund your prototype dreams, maybe your product idea needs more work.

This last approach to crowdfunding robots is underutilized but has been successfully used by many projects which then moved from prototyping into presales. Rumor even has it that Lit Motors crowdfunded their crash tests! This kind of crowdfunding is customer development and very lean startup in methodology. It’s not the same as the Jobs Act style crowdfunding which could lead to later trouble getting VC or angel investment (as reported in PandoDaily).

Claire Delauney’s Botiful Kickstarter campaign is in its last hours and as she crosses the funded line, Claire shares with us some of her strategies and insights into running a successful Kickstarter. (SF Bay Area Robotics Meetup) No, it isn’t always easy or #botiful, but Claire’s tips include:

• Have a captivating video with a clear message in the opening seconds.
• Engage with audience via updates – extend your story.
• Conversion rates are very low, so you have to reach beyond your own channels.
• It takes 100s of attempts to get media/blog interest.
• Be full time on your campaign, and in hindsight, also engage a PR specialist.

Jeremy Conrad, from Lemnos Labs, had some price point insights:

• Add 40% margin to your max cost estimate to protect against unforeseen.

This is a great tip because many campaigns that I’ve seen operate on a “we only charge what we’ll need to manufacture”. Firstly, this doesn’t leave you with any margin when shit does happen, and potentially leaves you out of pocket or your backers without any rewards. Secondly, unless you only want to make one batch of your robot, how are you going to distribute in future?

Distributors need to have a margin on top of manufacture and if you set the public expectation of your price point below the final market price, then you aren’t an attractive distribution prospect. It’s not enough to think about how to fund the project. You have to think about how to manufacture and distribute afterwards, including packaging and branding, so that future products have some tie in.

I provided an introduction to the Meetup with some Kickstarter “robot” project statistics, which I’ve scraped from their site. I’ll share a full post later on but in brief:

• 50% projects are unsuccessful
• Kickstarter is a long tail business – drop off in $ raised from 1st to 10th is huge.
• Majority of projects are about $3000-$4000
• Average pledge is $80ish but median pledge is closer to $30

• Claire Delauney (Botiful) – Botiful campaign (video & updates)
• Elad Inbar (Robot App Store) – Botiful/RAS blog dialogues
• Saurabh Palan (iRoboticist) – most number of #botiful shares (twitter, facebook and face to face)
• Jeremy Conrad (Lemnos Labs) – promoting and supporting robot startups & events generally

One thing to consider before crowdfunding your robot startup, is that around half of all projects don’t get funded. Also, some crowdfunding platforms specialize in creative projects or projects with a lower average target than a hardware startup. Those 6 figure success stories are unusual if you look closely at the data. I’m currently drafting up a deeper look at crowdfunding data vis robots (or product based projects). Crowdfunding can be an amazing tool for launching your robot startup but too many good robots are missing their target due to lack of marketing. Not only is hardware more expensive to launch than an album or even a short film, but we often also lack the fan base.

But at Robot Launchpad, a problem is just an opportunity we haven’t seized yet. We’re going to launch the Launchies! Let’s see who the social network sharp shooters are! The Launchies are awards for robot startup marketing. First topic – Botiful (or #botiful) – Claire Delauney’s ‘Botiful’ kickstarter campaign closes on Wednesday August 22nd and is 75% 80% funded. We should all be backers because Botiful is beautiful, but we want everyone to test their market channels.

• Best/funniest share of video (check out Elad’s entry already at Robot App Store!)
• Best/funniest share of picture
• Best/funniest share of text (tweet or blog)
• Most number of times #botiful is shared
• and overall Biggest Social Badass award

plus most creative use of ANY/ALL social networks – not just internet ones!

Don’t make us search for you – send us a link! Awards winners will be announced on Tuesday 21st August at the SF Bay Area Robotics Meetup. There will be trophies and prizes! There will be glory!

Ken Ihara’s creation “The Cardboard Robot” has just been funded on Kickstarter. The Cardboard Robot is a giant industrial sized robot arm with a reach just shy of 6 feet. Attach the smart phone camera attachment, and you have a robotic camera crane. The computer-controlled cardboard robot plugs into your computer via the USB port and is fully programmable. In software, you can define set points and then have the robot arm run through the programmed path. You can save your programmed paths as CSV files, which you can edit in Excel.  Motor speed is independently adjustable. As PC World put it, one advantage is it’s industrial size but can’t kill you. The other great advantage is cost.

CNET– “Thanks to its corrugated construction, the Cardboard Robot lets you command your own industrial-size claw or film crane for a fraction of the cost of a metal arm.”

There have been other cardboard robots, even robot arms but this one is the first to combine functionality with affordability. Ihara reached his relatively modest Kickstarter goal of $10,000 with days to spare. Also for every $3,000 that is raised by the Kickstarter funding campaign, Ihara will send one complete kit to a high school in the USA.

Cardboard is economical in and of itself, but its light weight as a material creates a reduction in costs across the board, as motors don’t need to be as large or powerful, etc. Robotics is perhaps a better use for cardboard because of the flow on effect, rather than the infamous cardboard bicycle which might only cost $9 to make but will retail for approx $90. You can buy a metal bike from Walmart for the same price. (Gioria Kariv from Israel is pictured here from recent press but another variant was also created in 2008 by UK student Phil Bridge)

Kariv credits a cardboard canoe for giving him inspiration. I am similarly inspired by the Origami Kayak. Oru is made out of corrugated polypropolene rather than pure cardboard , but has similar features. It’s strong, light, flexible and cheap. Both materials allow for different design and manufacturing techniques which haven’t been fully explored yet.

If you haven’t seen Anton Willis demonstrating his kayak at TechShop or at meetups, then you can read David Lang’s piece on Oru for Make Magazine. Anton Willis used TechShop to create prototypes for a product that is now ready for sale. He’s also inspired by the many other untapped projects for polypropolene and cardboard.

The potential in new ways to construct robots is as exciting for robotics as the other recent changes like rapid prototyping, bespoke manufacturing and 3d printing.