In just two years’ time, Sures has produced 158
software releases with two to five such crowd-sourced
capabilities built in each time. “The EZ-Builder software
rolls it all together into a single, free download,” says Sures.
The software is compatible with other robots outside the
EZ-Robot Revolution platform, as well.
“We provide a bunch of
starter, intermediate, and
advanced apps to teach people
how to start a robot off doing
things, moving it into different
positions,” says Sures. EZ-Robot
has over 200 tutorials available
free for download to explain
how to use the apps and to get the robot to do
things like listen to your voice, follow colors, or chase
a ball around a room (these are the basics). EZ-Robot
also has apps to make the robots see things in
augmented reality.
The Results
“When 100 people had our circuit board, I saw
one to two people creating something new and
sharing it with everyone else. When 1,000 people
had it, I saw 100 innovations. For example, one
community member made an arm for grabbing from
a walker to aid the disabled. Another added a
camera with machine vision to a wheel chair so a
disabled person could follow the person helping them as
they walked in front of them,” Sures explained.
Another community member is working on enabling all
1,000 of his robots to talk to each other. He uploaded that
capability to EZ-Cloud Variable Storage. “In our software,
when you define the software’s scope you can make it
public — available to all modules on your
program and everyone can access that.
EZ-Builder means the entire world has
access to it,” Sures boasted.
Still another roboticist is working on
solar robots using the Revolution
platform. Another is making robots out
of old toys using it. Even NASA is a
customer of EZ-Robot Revolution.
One roboticist is using the innovative
platform to create a humanoid robot that
can pick up boxes based on bar code
readings with the robot’s camera and
place them on a shelf. “Once this is a
functional device, he can create a factory
robot that will do the same. He has the
ability to use the design files to make the
robot full size for factory use,”
commented Sures.
Conclusion
Due to the open nature of this
platform, every EZ-Robot Revolution
robot can be unique from the others.
Every robot can also use what any other
14 SERVO 01.2014
Six = four legs plus two
arms with grasping claws.
Six shows off how highly
customizable this platform is.
Two-fisted Roli takes charge of the lawn.
This modified Roli with two arms and grasping
claws demonstrates its utility with a pine cone
in its right claw and kindling in its left. EZ-Robot
Revolution robots are highly customizable
thanks to the open source/crowd-sourced
hardware development.
