RAPIRO, a Robot kit for your Raspberry Pi

Shota Ishiwatari has started a KickStarter campaign for his new RAPIRO Raspberry Pi Robot. He is aiming for a simple to build bot which has RGB sensors onboard with 12 servos. The price? A very cool £229.

Ishiwatari has had plenty of experience in robot engineering, his company Kiluck Corp has already created a robot mascot for Japanese television. This current move is set to bring an affordable robot into the homes of many mainstream users.

The robot was designed in CAD and he worked with JMC, who are a 3D printing bureau to create the prototype robot. The 12 joints all have servo support, with a focus in maintaining a low price point. The bot can move his head, arms, legs and open and close the little hands as well – with an ability to walk around.

The frame of the robot is created from injection moulded parts and Ishiwatari wants the user base to have options for changing the design to suit them. The CAD file will be made available, allowing the end user to play about with the skeleton.
[yframe url='http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-KyBbOLMx0′]

RAPIRO has been designed to work directly with the inexpensive Raspberry Pi Linux based computer and the camera module. You can kit out the robot with a PSD distance sensor and speakers, at extra cost. The little PSD sensor costs around $15 more, but it could stop the robot from falling distances as it could sense drops in the environment, ahead of the walking movement.

You can watch some videos from Ishiwatari at his YouTube Channel here or if you want to part with some money, head over to the Kickstarter page here. At time of publication he had raised £26,000 of the £20,000 needed – so clearly a lot of people are interested.

Kitguru says: It seems a bargain price to us.

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