It’s fascinating to see how many development boards are available at a simple search on Amazon or any other online retailer. Two of them are the Arduino microcontroller and Raspberry Pi single board computer that can easily crush the record in robotics or automation with thousands of projects and millions of users.
In the era of Arduino and Raspberry Pi, several other development platforms are engineered to deliver simplicity and facilitate the first step in robotics and automation. In this area is coming another player able to solve the difficult programming software and over complicated hardware engineered for adults use. Suitable for children or students, the FlowPaw development board comes with easy to use software and versatile hardware solution to facilitate the development and the first step in robotics and automation.
FlowPaw with Claws
Behind the FlowPaw project is a team of engineers from DSPRobotics, which collect the fruits of long discussions with young engineers from schools, colleges, and universities from all over the world. The result is a couple of hardware and software tools designed to encourage young people to get involved and inspired with digital and physical technology.
The FlowStone programming tools use both graphical and computer code to create things and for fast development. The tool can be used to develop almost anything even the user uses a set of building blocks or the computer code.
But the heart of this educational project is the FlowPaw. This easy-to-use physical hardware is a limitless development platform with plug-and-play modular design and with USB port for PC connection.
It does not require external power supply and can handle a lot of code in its ARM Cortex 4 microprocessor with a bit more power than the Arduino microcontroller.
The board can be controlled over the FlowStone graphical or code-programming tool, and if something goes wrong, a reset button is waiting on the board.
The feedback is ensured by 4 coloured LED, while four push buttons can be connected with hardware components that act at the push of the button.
In robotics and automation, the GPIO pins are the doors of the board between control and physical components such as sensors, motors, and more. The FlowPow ensure 16 digital pins for input and 16 digital pins for output. More than that, 8 outputs are available for RC servo components that require external power.
A simple development board is not enough for a complete project. Its modular design enables the connection to a wide range of sensors, displays, controllers and more.
Using the Mikro Bus sockets, anyone can attach to the board many sensors such as light, temperature, proximity, accelerometers, gyros, as well as motor controllers, speech recognition module, buzzers and many more components for DIY and fun projects.
Need a Hand?
If the FlowPaw is up your alley or your kid’s solution to get inside the prototyping things, definitely the board has a huge potential in the homemade robots and automation industry.
