
The Robotis Bioloid (stylized as ROBOTIS BIOLOID) is a hobbyist and educational
robot kit produced by the
South Korea
South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...
n
robot
A robot is a machine—especially one Computer program, programmable by a computer—capable of carrying out a complex series of actions Automation, automatically. A robot can be guided by an external control device, or the robot control, co ...
manufacturer ''Robotis''. The Bioloid platform consists of components and small, modular
servomechanism
In mechanical and control engineering, a servomechanism (also called servo system, or simply servo) is a control system for the position and its time derivatives, such as velocity, of a mechanical system. It often includes a servomotor, and ...
s called the AX-12A Dynamixels, which can be used in a
daisy-chained fashion to construct robots of various configurations, such as wheeled,
legged, or
humanoid robots. The Robot is programmed with RoboPlus,
C (programming language)
C (''pronounced'' '' – like the letter c'') is a general-purpose programming language. It was created in the 1970s by Dennis Ritchie and remains very widely used and influential. By design, C's features cleanly reflect the capabilities of ...
based software.
The Bioloid system is thus comparable to the
Lego Mindstorms
Lego Mindstorms (sometimes stylized as ''LEGO MINDSTORMS'') is a discontinued line of educational kits for building programmable robots based on Lego bricks. It was introduced on 1 September 1998 and discontinued on 31 December 2022.
Mindstor ...
, and
VEX Robotics VEXplorer kits.
Kit types
There are multiple variations of the Bioloid kit:
* ''Robotis Bioloid Beginner'' – includes parts and designs for 14 robot types; discontinued
* ''Robotis Bioloid Comprehensive'' – includes parts and designs for 26 robot types; discontinued
* ''Robotis Bioloid Expert'' – designed for education or research use; discontinued
* ''Robotis Bioloid Premium'' – upgraded and latest version of Bioloid Comprehensive Kit builds 29 different configurations
* ''Robotis Bioloid GP'' – intended for robot competitions
* ''Robotis Darwin-Mini Humanoid Robot'' – 3d printed shell allows infinite customization options
* ''Robotis Bioloid STEM Standard'' – includes parts and designs for 7 robot types
* ''Robotis Bioloid STEM Expansion'' – includes parts and designs for 9 robot types; requires purchase of STEM Standard
TurtleBot 3 and other platforms
Turtlebot 3, announced in 2016 and developed in collaboration with Robotis and the
Open Source Robotics Foundation, is the smallest and cheapest of the TurtleBots.
Other Robotis platforms include: Robotis OP 2, Robotis Manipulator, and ThorMang3.
TB3 plug-ins for Gazebo
Robotis has TurtleBot3
plug-ins for the
Gazebo
A gazebo is a pavilion structure, sometimes octagonal or Gun turret, turret-shaped, often built in a park, garden, or spacious public area. Some are used on occasions as bandstands.
In British English, the word is also used for a tent-like can ...
robotics simulator that allow simulating a TB3 Burger, Waffle, or Waffle Pi.
Applications
The platform is currently in use by the
U.S. Naval Academy in their
mechanical engineering
Mechanical engineering is the study of physical machines and mechanism (engineering), mechanisms that may involve force and movement. It is an engineering branch that combines engineering physics and engineering mathematics, mathematics principl ...
courses, and is also popular in the
RoboCup
RoboCup is an annual international robotics competition founded in 1996 by a group of university professors (including Hiroaki Kitano, Manuela M. Veloso, Itsuki Noda and Minoru Asada). The aim of the competition is to promote robotics and AI ...
international
robotics
Robotics is the interdisciplinary study and practice of the design, construction, operation, and use of robots.
Within mechanical engineering, robotics is the design and construction of the physical structures of robots, while in computer s ...
competition
and FIRA competition.
See also
*
TurtleBot
*
DARwIn-OP now known as Robotis OP2
References
Robot kits
Bipedal humanoid robots
Robotics at ROBOTIS
2000s robots
{{Robot-stub