⛰️ Andino - An open-source low-cost educational robot

ROS Projects
, , , ,
1

Hi there ROS community! Let me introduce you to Andino!

:robot: What is Andino?

Andino is a full open-source differential drive robot for educational purposes. It is ROS 2-Humble-compatible and its building is easy and affordable (<300 USD).

real_robot.png822×690 440 KB

:package: Repository: GitHub - Ekumen-OS/andino: Open-source diff drive robot ROS 2 compatible

It is already integrated with ROS-based frameworks like Gazebo, Slam-Toolbox, Nav2. Nonetheless, the idea is to continue growing by connecting Andino with other great frameworks such as Open-RMF, in a way that this platform can act as a live example of all sorts of applications that can be developed with ROS.

Andino project is still under development, so we would love to receive contributions from the ROS community


Click to reproduce video: Slam on real Andino robot(slam_toolbox)

Check the repository’s media section for more.

:star2: Motivation

From Ekumen, we’ve been promoting actions to take robotics to all parts of Latin America. This includes organizing free talks and workshops at schools, conferences, and universities in order to reach more people and introduce them to the world of robotics. ROS has been a great tool for people to give their first steps, generate some intrigue in robots and make them walk the robot’s path.

We have found that one of the first blockers preventing people from continuing to learn on their own is how distant they feel when working on simulations since often getting a low-budget robot for educational purposes is not that easy.

Andino comes to fill that gap and allows us to generate more engagement with students and robotics enthusiasts since early stages, as many of them choose to start by creating their own robot to hit the robotics road.

23 Likes
2

Very cool! :smile:

I do have to ask, what’s the idea behind still using the RPLidar instead of something newer like the LD19? The price is roughly the same afaik.

Also while the L298N is very affordable, something like a TB6612FNG or 2x DRV8871 would surely get more efficiency and runtime. One could also just skip the Arduino and wire it all directly to the Pi, though that would lock you into using one of those, which aren’t easy to get these days.

3

Hey! Thanks for your feedback :smiley:

I do have to ask, what’s the idea behind still using the RPLidar instead of something newer like the LD19? The price is roughly the same afaik.

The idea is to provide the most straightforward experience to people walking their first steps in the technology, with this in mind RPLidar’s been around ROS projects for many years and that permits an easy understanding and debugging of the system. Also, the setup is the same if you want to move from the A1M8 to the A2M8 model so in case someone is looking for better resolution you can definitely opt-in for that one. Nevertheless, this is an open platform so anyone can choose any variant they want and we would like to see those variants implemented by the community. :rocket:

Also while the L298N is very affordable, something like a TB6612FNG or 2x DRV8871 would surely get more efficiency and runtime.

We went for very basic, affordable, and easy-to-get parts and to be honest we didn’t go over the TB6612FNG as the L298N was enough for our case and showed good results at first, being probably the cheapest option. We encourage people to build their own Andino with these variants and show the results to the community so people can have options when building it. :smiley:

One could also just skip the Arduino and wire it all directly to the Pi, though that would lock you into using one of those, which aren’t easy to get these days.

Indeed! Also, even though the Pi can easily manage the signals for the motors and encoders, this separation between low-level hardware and the SBC follows a scalable system that most probably works for other robotic projects.

2 Likes