gpvillamil
Second Officer
Flight distance : 210226 ft
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The GEIO robots are controlled via a mobile app, over WiFi broadcast from the robot. There is no mechanism for connecting via a router.
The control protocol is proprietary. Someone was poking around and found an SSH port on the robot, but login credentials are unknown.
In general the build quality is decent. The four arms are actually a single aluminum casting, so it feels pretty sturdy. However, they are using geared DC motors for driving the wheels, so I suspect that they can’t control speeds very accurately. There are two speed settings (fast/slow) but there is no sense of gradual control. For example, when you press forward on the direction control, the robot takes off at full speed in that direction. You can’t move diagonally - just forward/back/left/right. Even the programming interface enforces this. You can’t indvidually control each motor, as on the Robomaster. This seems a terrible limitation - it would be so easy to at least support diagonal motion.
At this point, it is so buttoned up and so restricted that it doesn’t seem like a good platform for exploring drivetrains.
I’ve built a few different holonomic drivetrains (like your 3 omniwheel Kiwi drive) using the Vex IQ system. That’s a good system for messing around, you have complete control over the motors and a decent controller. The brain has 12 ports that you can use for sensing or motors.
However, you’re locked into their system of sensors and effectors.
I’m thinking the most promising platform for real experimentation is those cheap kits you see on Amazon, that use Arduino or Raspberry Pi as a processor. The latter especially would let you play around with AI and computer vision with few restrictions. I’ve had some good results using the Sparkfun Qwiic system to quickly make robots using micro:bit, Arduino and Pi. I have a Sphero RVR on order, that’s basically a smart drivetrain. However, Sparkfun is selling an Advanced Autonomy kit for the RVR that includes a RPi, GPS, pan/tilt camera, etc. That looks like it would match the capabilities of the Robomaster S1, except all open source. The main point of connection is basically a UART, they make a bit deal of it.
Here's a link to the Sphero RVR: https://www.sphero.com/rvr
Here's the autonomy kit from Sparkfun: https://www.sparkfun.com/products/15303
For a combined total of $415, you have a fully open programmable robot, with more capabilities than the S1 in some areas (GPS, total access to anything on Raspberry Pi eg OpenCV) but obviously less in other areas (gun, Meccanum drive).
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