The Insectbot Hexa kit
Who didn’t want to buy a robot kit at a price of seven Starbucks coffees? More than that, the kit is a DIY robot based on the Arduino Leonardo board, which is something that makes me think that the insect can be programmed and re-programmed till the end of the fun.
The Insectbot kit reached the second generation with improvements over dimensions and specifications. The body is 15% larger and the weight has increased by 20%. The kit features the same six legs driven by three 9g micro servos.
The code is redesigned to improve the motion and the senses of the insect. Now, the robot has smooth movements in every direction and better capabilities to avoid obstacles.
The Arduino Leonardo board featured an Atmel AtMega32u4 microcontroller that runs at 16MHz.
Back to programming, you still have to spend some time to program the robot with the graphical development environment called Ardublock.
Compared with other robot kits and with single board computers such as Raspberry Pi or BeagleBone Black, the insect seems to be the youngest child in the schoolyard.
It is clear that the kit doesn’t reach the speed of a bullet, but characterized by simplicity, the robot is a good platform for young engineers.
See the Insectbot Hexa kit in action