Low cost robot design for research and educational purposes

Abstract

The low price of some robotic platforms is one of the main causes of robotics popularization between all different levels of students. Nevertheless some universities still cannot afford the costs of buying robotic platforms or, due to the lack of interest of the economic councils in certain fields, do not address a sufficient amount of the budget for some fields and courses. Considering presented difficulties, this work describes the design of a robotic platform using only low cost materials that can replace the acquisition of expensive robotic platforms. The results showed that it is possible to build a low cost platform respecting previously described constraints to perform real robotic experiments and validate algorithms.