The Robotis
by Tom Carroll
OLLO
Explorer
A Great Starter
Robot Kit For Kids
I have long admired the Robotis Bioloid line of robot kits and their very
unique Dynamixel rotary actuator servos. Universities around the world have
based much of their robotics curriculum upon the South Korean company’s
Robotis Bioloid and Dynamixel designs. Dennis Hong and his students at
Virginia Tech built CHARLI-L (shown in Figure 1) using Robotis actuators. It
is a small 54 inch human-sized walking humanoid that has been featured in
many scientific magazines. The downside of the Robotis Bioloid line of
products is their relatively high cost.
With that in mind, Robotis has developed a series of low cost robot kits
for young kids to help them learn about and build robots. These
introductory kits have garnered much praise at toy fairs around the world as
they acquaint youngsters to the sciences of physics and mechanics in a
creative and fun way. As Robotis states: “OLLO is science (great introduction
to physics and mechanics), creativity, variety, entertainment, logic (the
RoboPlus programming language can be used for all levels of robotics),
power, safety (no soldering/simple tools), and design.”
FIGURE 1. CHARLI-L built by
Virginia Tech with Robotis
Dynamixel actuators.
FIGURE 2.
The Robotis
Explorer Kit.
In April ‘ 10, RoboGames was held in San Mateo, CA. There were quite a few booths with displays that ranged from robot toys, robot accessories, electronics companies, robots, and robot kits. Among several that really drew attention, the Robotis OLLO
booth seemed to draw the most kids and their parents. In the April
‘09 issue of SERVO, Bryce and Evan Woolley wrote a great article on
the OLLO individual Bug Kits in their column, Twin Tweaks. These
kits can be assembled into an intelligent robot for a shade under
$100 retail.
The simplest of these offerings are the Figure kits retailing for
about $20, and they are appropriate for ages 7+. These kits are not
motorized. The Action kits have a single motor powered by an AA
battery, cost about $30, and are for ages 8+. The OLLO Starter kit includes 12 simple action robots and a nice 160 page
color manual. The Bug kits just mentioned add an intelligent module, remote control, can follow a line path, cost about
$100 each, and are for ages 12 and above. The new OLLO Explorer Kit retails for $149.90 and is the kit we’ll discuss here.
34 SERVO 02.2011
