Palm-Based Robot Goes Commercial

A few weeks ago, a design for a cheap DIY fully autonomous robot built with off the shelf parts with a Palm at its heart was posted by the Carnegie Mellon Robotics Insitute. The robot can drive itself around on flat surfaces, using optical range sensors to sense nearby obstacles and walls. They give links to parts suppliers but hundreds of people asked to buy all the parts as a kit. As a research team, the Carnegie Mellon folks weren't interested in opening a store. Therefore, they have licensed the design to Acroname, who will sell the kits. They are offering two versions, the BareBones Kit for $260 and the Easy Kit for $300.

The BareBones kit requires you to download the instructions, modify the servos, glue the connnector, and wire the serial cable. The Easy Kit includes the instructions and requires only a screwdriver to assemble. They are taking preorders now but some of the parts aren't available yet, so they aren't shipping.

"We have a good deal of experience with kits and the robotics enthusiasts. This kit, either because of the novel design, or because it interfaces with the Palm Pilot seems to be registering at an entirely new level," said Steve Richards, president and founder of Acroname. "[I] can't predict yet how many we expect to sell. I expect it to be in the thousands within a year."