My 13-year-old son would like to get into robotics - he has built simple mechanical stuff on his own, gotten a $75 RC car and taken it apart and put it back together, etc.
He is trying to figure out if there is a kit-based way he can build a 'bot - with wheels or tracks on the base, and a robot arm - where they could be controlled remotely.
He and I have been Googling and found a few sites with robot kits, including stuff like this:
A cool robot arm, a do-able price (~$55) but not on mobile base and no remote control.
So - how realistic is my son’s quest? Any websites we’ve been missing?
Or - if we need to take a step back or two, what is the best way to get started with robotics? We’ve heard about LEGO Mindstorm, but the stuff he is interested in pursuing don’t seem to be buildable via LM. He is basically thinking about battle 'bot-type creations, but not full-sized, armored creators of mayhem - more like an RC-type vehicle with robot-type capabilities.
I’m not clear what you mean by “not buildable via Lego Mindstorms”, since you can make battle bots with it. And pretty much anything else imaginable, too.
I don’t have any specific recommendations but wanted to say first, wow, I really miss Battle Bots The other thing I wanted to say was that my son was in robotics club in middle school and most of the bots in the competition we went to were modified Roombas. You can apparently modify them quite a lot. Obviously you’d have to add the arm.
Update - found a friend of his who has Mindstorm so he is learning more about it. I think he was focused more on building a 'bot - Mindstorm has the brick and parts, and requires programming - just a different set of activities he is trying to wrap his brain around…
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Update - found a friend of his who has Mindstorm so he is learning more about it. I think he was focused more on building a 'bot - Mindstorm has the brick and parts, and requires programming - just a different set of activities he is trying to wrap his brain around…
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Strictly speaking, it has to be programmable and able to operate autonomously to be a proper robot. But you can also set Mindstorms stuff up to operate via remote control.