Product Review
My Time With
The TurtleBot
by Alan Federman
www.servomagazine.com/index.php?/
magazine/article/march2012_Federman
Discuss this article in the
SERVO Magazine forums at
http://forum.servomagazine.com.
Over 30 years ago, a group of hobbyists were introduced to a prototype of
what later became the Apple II. Since 1980, I’ve been wondering: “Where is
the personal robot equivalent of the Apple II?” While it isn’t quite here yet,
I believe the TurtleBot by Willow Garage is a strong candidate for the “Apple”
of personal robots, and at a price point below $1,500 is an extremely
affordable experimental platform suitable for prototyping many innovative
domestic applications.
What is a TurtleBot? According to www.turtlebot.com: “TurtleBot is a low cost
personal robot kit with open source software. With TurtleBot, you’ll be able to
build a robot that can drive around your house, see in 3D, and have enough
horsepower to create exciting applications.”
FIGURE 1. TurtleBot Kit
and components.
The Homebrew Robotics Club (http://hb robotics.org; HBRC) which meets in Mountain View, CA, is a direct
descendant of the famous
Homebrew Computer Club (HCC). If
you haven’t heard about the HCC,
you might be familiar with some of
its members like Steve Jobs, Steve
Wozniak, Adam Osborne, and
George Morrow. Over the last year,
several members of the HBRC have
been experimenting with the Willow
Garage ROS (Robot Operating
System) and Google’s ADK (Android
Development Kit) which is an
Arduino based accessory controller
that can be used in robotics. ROS
and Arduino are now compatible.
In an effort to promote future
development, HBRC was generously
54 SERVO 03.2012
