Rise of the Machines: Arduino Bots

Robotics Week

Its robotics week (April 5th – 13th) 2014 (http://www.nationalroboticsweek.org), on Arduino Day (29th March 2014) I posed the question “What will you Build?”.  Well here in the Pentura office, we went out and bought some Zumo Shields from Pololu.  The shields are also available from our favourite electronics provider Adafruit.  The shield is a quick an easy insertable arduino shield that slides perfectly into place on an Arduino Uno R3

Zumo Shield

The Shield on its own with an EnglishPenny for size comparison.  Here you can see the Pin headers are pre-soldered for the Arduino Uno (R3 model if you wish to use the Piezo buzzer, just below the text Zumo Shield).  To the left of the buzzer is a LSM303DLHC accelerometer and magnometer compass, so you can build/write advanced navigation programs.  Underneath the shield (not current visible) is the Zumo reflectance sensor array for line following/avoidance, also the battery compartment for 4x standard 3.3v AA batteries – that supply power to 2x 75:1 micro metal-gear motors and the Arduino Uno.  The shield has an accessible on/off button, input button, and a reset button (resets Arduino).  For more detail about the Zumo Shield please refer to the user guide: http://www.pololu.com/docs/0J57

The pre-assembled version also has a handy stainless steel miniature cowcatcher on the front 😉

For those interested in Zumo wrestling I would suggest reading this web-blog : http://mcuoneclipse.com/2013/09/03/mini-sumo-robot-competition-running-with-frdm-kl25z/, the blog poster has an interesting pic of the same sumo shield – only its powered/controlled by a beagle bone blackFreescale FRDM-KL25Z board.

The rules for Zumo can be found here: http://www.robotroom.com/SumoRules.html

At Pentura we think programming and electronics skills are extremely useful, for Hackers and Penetration Testers.  To keep our skills sharp – between jobs we like to have fun, and build interesting projects.  If you want to join in and and become a member of our Team? Send us your CV.