Exploring the World of Robotic Vehicle Kits

How will one describe robots? A machine working on one or more computer languages is used especially to carry out complex work and is controlled by humans. Therefore, robotics is, as one can guess, a branch of study in engineering with a research field in computer science. It exclusively deals with making technological advancements in the robot to assist humans in day-to-day life. Robots involve a great deal of time, money, and undoubtedly big brains. All these machines we are talking about are highly advanced. However, multiple things are lying around us that are robots but have not been specifically said so, right from the smart refrigerator, smart home, and smartphone to whatnot. Let’s assume the word ‘smart’ is a fancy way of saying robots and sounds more friendly.

For a long time in history, we have been using some kind of vehicle, starting from rolling logs down the hill to the vehicle that can cover a lot of distances in a very short amount of time, i.e., aeroplanes. Everyone fancies vehicles, but not more than the engineering enthusiast. For them, it’s one such ladder that has countless possibilities for innovating in ways not many of us out there can even think of, and it need not always be complex.

Now, what better way for engineers or anyone who is fascinated by such fields can there be than to combine the two topics of robotics and vehicles and make one spectacular piece of engineering that can be used in as many ways as possible? That thought leads to robotic vehicle kits.

WHAT ARE ROBOTIC VEHICULAR KITS?

As the name suggests, these are kits available to make a robot out of the provided material. These kits are a complete package of many components that are required to specifically make a robotic vehicle. The robotic vehicle kits are, as one might say, an easy tutorial to get you started in this. The kits contain various essential components that are to be assembled to form one complete piece of work. These components generally consist of

• Sensors
• Motors
• Power sources
• Actuators
• Wires
• Chassis
• Black tape
• Multicolor ribbon cable

The above-mentioned components are essential, meaning their presence is necessary and vital for robotic vehicular kits. The sensors help the vehicle sense and form a path along which it can travel or avoid any obstacle; motors are used to provide motion to the body; tape is required to hold wire and other components together; and the multi-color ribbon cable is used for its ease of use and not to get confused with other wires. For emergencies, the kit also provides you with zip tags that can be used to tie up things for the moment.

So naturally, there are kits available out there that one might easily get their hands on when required. The kits are available in many stores under electronics and electric work. Apart from that, the kits are also made available online on various sites such as Amazon, Robu.in, Adafruit.com, and RobotShop.com, particularly those dealing with kits only. The sites offer many different components, such as Arduino kits (reprogrammable chips using simple lines of coding), one of the necessary components.

WHAT ARE THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF ROBOTIC VEHICLE KITS AVAILABLE?

The kits are easy to assemble if one knows what they are doing. The easiest one to get is a line follower. The robot assembled has at least two wheels and a body resembling that of a pull cart, and the Arduino chip is placed wherever and completely upon the assembly. The chip can be programmable to simplify tasks such as moving forward and backward to spin about a point. As the name suggests, it can also be programmed to follow a line.

Apart from these, there are many kits available, some of which are mentioned below.

• Ultrasonic Intelligent Bluetooth Robot Car Kit
• Raptor soccer robot kit
• Multi-functional 4WD robot
• Hexapod spider robot kit
• Cligo smart robot kit
• Bluster beginner robot

WHICH VEHICULAR KIT BEGINNERS SHOULD OPT FOR?

This is one of the most common questions among beginners and also among newbies in this field, and yes, they are not all to blame for this. Of the hundreds of kits available out there with thousands of components, selecting the appropriate one for the first time can be confusing and mind-twirling. But there’s no need to stress about it at all. For exactly this concern, there are many kits available specifically named “starter kits. Some of them are mentioned below:

• Elegoo smart robot
• Makeblock mbot kit
• UCTRONICS robot kit
• Robolink rokit smart kit
• Adept smart car kit

WHAT EXACTLY IS A BEGINNER KIT?

All of us are pretty much disappointed and disheartened if we fail to execute something, so we should select wisely when getting a kit from any store or any online platform. Select the starting kit based on some of the points mentioned below:

• Go for budget-friendly; there are tonnes of kits to choose from. Get yourself an easy-going kit; keep looking to see what suits your beginner kit. Get enough experience so that you can enjoy making complex kits in the future.
• Components: There are many ways of building a robotic vehicle based on the components you have at your disposal. So for the beginning, go for lesser components and make a list of components that are crucial to the making.

WHY GO FOR ROBO VEHICULAR KITS?

The kits ensure that there are exactly the necessary components in the right quantity. Instead of going for separate components, that way it’ll cost you more, and the quantity available is large as compared to what you might use. The kits are specifically designed to meet the requirements of that particular project, and thus the quantity offered is more than enough to get through. Apart from all this, there are also kits that don’t deal with the whole package. If you have all the hardware components like wires, Arduino chips, batteries, etc. but they lag in the chassis of the vehicle, then there are kits that offer just that.