Cyber Journals: Multidisciplinary Journals in Science and Technology, Journal of Selected Areas in Robotics and Control (JSRC), December

Edition, 2013
Volume 3, Issue 12

A Low-Cost and Simple Arduino-Based

Educational Robotics Kit
Luiz A. Junior, Osvaldo T. Neto, Marli F. Hernandez, Paulo S. Martins, Leonardo L. Roger, Fátima A. Guerra

Abstract—This paper presents a low cost educational robotics A. Goals

kit based on the UNO Arduino platform. The prototype is
intended to be applied in secondary (high) schools by means of
One driving concern of this work is the affordability and
educational workshops on robotics. The project is supported by accessibility of educational tools to students and schools that
a step-by-step documentation (e.g. booklet) that addresses basic do not possess enough financial support. To this end, we
physics, mathematics, logic programming and robotics concepts. envisage the creation of a low-cost robotics kit, which can
It also offers all the steps for evolving in the construction of a be applied in workshops, where students may find themselves
robot, and it employs a block-structured environment (such as
Minibloq) to allow easier programming.
capable of obtaining a better understanding of the contents
approached in the classroom and develop their knowledge
Index Terms—Robotics, STEM, Education, Engineering, in various subjects. The goal it to allow high schools to
Mathematics, Physics, Arduino, Block Programming, Digital
adopt transdisciplinary courses covering a wide range of topics
Inclusion, Technological Inclusion.
including electronics, generation and transformation of energy,
geometrical optics, electromechanics, foreign languages, com-
I. I NTRODUCTION munication, computing, sensors, programming, and logics.
From a pedagogical perspective, this project aims at sup-
porting the teacher in diversifying his or her work using this
W E are surrounded by technologies and information that
are constantly being renewed. The transformations of
the information era must be implemented in schools in order
robotics kit (and a related workshop) as a tool to facilitate the
handling of advanced technologies in education, while also
to support students facing new challenges. Robotics may have acting as catalysts of knowledge in schools that are still in
a direct impact on schools (and students) performance in technological disadvantage.
the sense that it brings to classroom life experiences that Educational robotics was popularized after the development
children may have had with electronics, computers and games of the LEGO Mind-storms (www.lego.com). This is a small
outside school. Robotics can trigger creativity, team work and computer inserted within a LEGO brick and sold as a robotics
autonomy, thus fostering students with a formation based on kit. However, this kit is inaccessible to many local schools due
ethics and technology. to its high cost (around USD 700.00 in Brazil). To this day,
Educational robotics can be defined as an environment built other robotics kits available (see Table III in the Appendix) still
from computers, electronic components, electro mechanicals pose prohibitive costs for the majority of public schools. In
and programs, which together have the goal to explore several order to achieve the mainstream of the Brazilian schools, this is
areas of knowledge. It is used as a teaching tool, and although an alternative robot kit with both source code and project that
it is frequently related to mobile robots, it is in fact much are free and available. It is composed of low-cost components
broader. Searching for a playful and inclusive education, and it is designed to allow students to build themselves the
robotics changes the traditional and conservative teaching ap- robot.
proaches, as it allows development of new experiences and the
re-application of dynamic technologies. Robotics represents B. Requirements
the revolution on the teaching-learning process. The design of this robotic kit is driven by four basic
From a broader perspective, robotics must promote the requirements, as stated below:
development of competences and basic cognitive abilities of
• Low-Cost: It must be affordable to most schools, which
its users. It allows people to experiment with new educational
can be translated into one robot per student in the class.
processes, experiences and ways of learning. Robotics is an
This latter requirement dictates a cost that should not
attractive element that invites teachers and students alike to
exceed one hundred USD. This requirement impacts
teach, learn, discover and invent through collective processes.
on restricting somehow the level of functionality and
It is with the understanding of innovation and inclusion that
performance implemented by the kit.
we endeavored into the construction and reapplication of
• Appeal: It must be appealing to the students. A aesthet-
technologies to the educational area, taking robotics as the
ically clean design which stimulates the enthusiasm in
main tool to help transform the educational landscape.
working with the robotics kit is a key concern in this
project. This requirement limits to some extent the use
The authors are with the College of Technology, University of Campinas
(UNICAMP), Limeira, São Paulo, CEP:13484-332 Brazil, corresponding of recycled or second-hand materials as primary building
author’s email: ([email protected]) components. On the other hand, it favors finished and

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 relatively low-cost components off-the-shelf (COTS) such McLurkin et al describe the experiences of using an ad-
as the Arduino platform. vanced, low-cost robot in STEM education [4] [5]. The robot
• Simplicity: The concept of simplicity translates into three design has many features specific to educators: it is advanced
dimensions in this design: 1) Assembly 2) Operation 3) enough for academic research, it has a broad feature set to
Maintenance and 3) Understanding. We seek an assembly support a wide range of curricula, and is inexpensive enough
time of the whole kit of no longer than 2 hours once to be an effective outreach tool. This robot was used in three
the bare components are acquired. Once the system is different classes and it was the foundation for an innovative
assembled, its operation should be manageable to those problem-based learning curriculum. Specifically, the robot has
who are novices in robotics. Furthermore, maintenance specialized sensor systems and a communication interface that
of the kit should be kept minimal, requiring no more supports a multi-robot curricula. The system is composed of
than a simple replacement of any damaged components. four major parts: 1) the r-one robot; 2) a Python development
Furthermore, it is again necessary to keep functionality environment; 3) a camera tracking system, and 4) a server
minimal in order to avoid overloading the student with software that integrates all the components together. The
too much information and facilitate the understanding of hardware can support classes in computer science, electrical
basic concepts. These features all corroborate to improve engineering and mechanical engineering. The system enables
the system’s usability. They also qualify the robotics kit a novel multi-robot curriculum while fostering collaborative
itself in the category of a starter kit. team work on assignments.
• Open source: An open source is the best model for Sipitakiat, Blikstein and Cavallo [6] introduce the GoGo
dissemination of this initiative. Clearly, the robotic kit Board, a low-cost programmable brick that allows the user to
must be easily available to all interested parties, including actively participate in its production process. They discuss the
teachers, professors, students as well as laboratories, use of found and broken materials as sources of construction
schools and colleges. supplies. Additionally, they analyze two case studies from
projects developed in Brazil from 2002 to 2003. Specific
C. Review of earlier work attention is given to the design of the GoGo board, which
There are in the literature a number of robotics kits for allows for diverse and socially relevant learning projects to
academic research and/or educational projects. Therefore, in take place. Due to its relatively lower cost, the project extends
the next paragraphs we discuss a few examples of what is the audience beyond well-funded schools and institutions,
currently available in order to provide a general overview allowing for the inclusion of economically challenged students
of the landscape on robotics kits without attempting to be and schools to the context of educational robotics.
exhaustive. Filho, Almeida and Martins [7] developed the design of
Connaughton and Modlin [1] present a robotics platform a six wheeled, multitasking, educational and mobile robot.
built upon a set of existing technologies, including a Vex The main features of their project are the following: 1) it is
Robotics kit, a Nintendo Wii remote and a Bluetooth modem. built with electronic garbage and easy-to-obtain materials; 2)
The system allows the introduction of a variety of computer it is based on the PIC16F628A micro-controller, actuators (dc
science and engineering concepts at middle school, high motors for movement and accomplishing tasks) and sensors
school, and college level. The modular system components (responsible for the interaction with the external environment).
allow students to replicate, improve, and experiment with Furthermore, micro-controller programming is directly carried
individual parts of the system in both research-oriented and out on the motherboard, without the need to remove any
lecture-based environments. Their work also include observa- components.
tions from using the system in a high-school robotics club. Our robotics kit presents a lower cost than the kits described
Research on collective algorithms is typically carried out previously, with the exception of the work by Filho et al,
either via simulation or using a small number of robots, due to Kilobot and GoGo board. However, the design specification
their complexity. In order to tackle such limitation, Rubenstein, by Filho et al infringes at least two of our requirements: it
Ahler and Nagpal [2] designed a robot (Kilobot) that allows uses electronic garbage which may add more logistic effort
research on collective algorithms on a large number of robots in the construction process, as the acquisition these types of
(hundreds or thousands). The robot allows one single user to materials (in our context) is not always scalable and it does
easily oversee the programming, powering on, and charging all not always lend itself easily to an attractive look in the final
robots, which would be quite challenging or even impossible design. Secondly, it employs the exclusive use of either an
with current robotic systems. Each robot costs only 14 USD assembly language or a high level language, which violates
and takes 5 minutes to assemble. the requirement of simplicity (i.e. not always accessible to
Mondada et al [3] introduced the E-Puck robot design. Due introductory level students).
to its particular design, the E-puck is not strictly related to Another lower-cost robot is Kilobot. However, as men-
robotics, i.e. it can be used in a large spectrum of teaching tioned earlier, Kilobot was designed primarily for research on
activities. Through a systematic evaluation by the students, the collaborative algorithms. Therefore, it surpasses the level of
authors showed that this robot fits its educational purpose and simplicity that is aimed in our context. The GoGo initiative
it is appreciated by 90 percent of a large sample of students. has also an attractive cost-benefit ratio, but the value listed (see
This robot specifically targets engineering education at the Table III in the Appendix) includes a bare micro-controller
college level. board with sensors and interfacing capabilities: once a full-

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fledged robot kit is assembled using this board (e.g. including important to correctly select the USB input, i.e. the
actuators, engines and drivers) its cost may escalate and fall one that is connected to the Arduino board, so that the
well beyond the scope of our requirements. software uploads the code developed.
The rest of this paper is organized as follows: Section II • Blocks environment: In this environment the student is
presents the platform used to design the low-cost educational in touch with actual programming in a simple way: the
robotics kit (hardware and programming environment); In student uses colorful blocks to generate programming
Section III we introduce the design of the robotics kit, covering code, resulting in a colorful syntax that facilitates the
its architecture, the software, the power supply system and the learning of the programming logic.
cost analysis; In Section IV we discuss the results and finally, • C environment: In this environment all the programming
in Section V, we address our conclusions. and syntax developed by the student is dynamically
converted to the C programming language. Therefore, the
II. BACKGROUND : D EVELOPMENT P LATFORM students become familiar with the structure and syntax of
In this section we introduce the hardware and software the language. While in this environment, the student is
platform employed in the design and implementation of the not allowed to alter the original program, i.e. this screen
robotics kit. is exclusively for visualization and follow-up.

A. Hardware: Arduino UNO

The Arduino prototyping platform 1 was used in the devel-
opment of this robotics kit. Arduino was designed in Italy
in 2005 and since it is open-source it facilitates hardware
acquisition and implementation. Arduino is a multi-platform
tool for Windows, Linux and Macintosh, based on IDE
programming, and has a development environment based on
C. However, its design accommodates some alterations that
facilitate the understanding and the development of all end
users (i.e. students, hobbyists and experienced developers).
Currently, the Arduino Project is composed of 19 board models
- one for each type of project. Specifically, this robot kit
employs the UNO board.
Some features have been decisive in the choice of the
Arduino UNO model, such as processor and power consump-
tion. The UNO consists of an 8-bit ATMEL micro-controller,
the ATmega328P, with an internal, permanent memory (EEP- Fig. 1: The Low-Cost Robotics Kit
ROM) for both code (including applications created by the
students/developer) and data storage, and an internal volatile
memory (RAM) for storage of temporary information. Another
important feature of the Arduino UNO is its low-power III. ROBOTIC KIT D ESIGN
consumption, since it can be powered by a simple 9V (volts) Fig. 1 illustrates the robotics kit proposed in this project.
battery. The operation and performance of the UNO model has The design is conceived around its architecture, the hardware,
shown a versatility that is critical for the development of this software, and the power system, as described in the following
educational robotics kit, as it offers autonomy for a reasonable subsections. We also discuss the costs incurred in the design
period of time. as it is a priority requirement.

B. Programming environment
A. Architecture
Minibloq is a graphic programming environment used in
this work. It facilitates the introduction of students into the Fig. 2 illustrates the major blocks of the architecture.
world of programming. The students use colorful blocks to Besides the Arduino platform (block 1), the robotics kit
program physical computing devices very easily. Minibloq 2 has two other electronic boards for the interface and com-
is described according to three environments: munication with the external environment. The larger board
(board 2) is responsible for the following functions: 1) Power
• Hardware environment: In this environment, students
supply regulation (5 V), which is the ideal voltage to supply
attending a workshop on introductory robotics may se-
the Arduino and all the others electronic components; 2) Input
lect which Arduino model they will program and work.
voltage regulation of the power supply to 3.6 V, which is the
Clearly, it is important to select the correct board model,
voltage level used to recharge the batteries; 3) Receive output
since each model has a different I/O system. It is also
control signals from the Arduino board and boost their levels.
1 www.arduino.cc These are the control signals used to activate and power the
2 Minibloq - http://blog.minibloq.org/ engines; 4) Provide the power supply to the sensors board.

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 Fig. 2: Block Diagram of the Hardware Design

The smaller board (board 3) performs optical reading of the

floor, and sends the signal to the Arduino board. The Arduino
in turn interprets this signal and make its own decision
allowing the robot to perform its function, i.e. follow a certain
trajectory set by mat material fixed on the floor.

B. Software
Fig. 3 illustrates the basic software for path control. This
is a line-following robot. Therefore, the software implements
a simple loop that steers the robot back to its intended path
once it is detected that it is about to leave the intended (line)
track.
The software periodically polls a micro controller input
port that senses line detection and then it actuates on the
engines. Line detection is performed in hardware through
optical sensors. A LED coupled to a photodiode was used
as the infrared sensor. It was installed beneath the robot to
allow track detection, so that the light emitted by the LED
and reflected back on a surface is sensed by the photodiode.
Each side of the robot contains one optical sensor, i.e. the left
and the right sensors (LS, RS). The path line lies between both
tires and once the robot’s left side sensor (LS) hits or crosses
the path line (meaning that it is about to leave the desired path),
the optical sensor outputs an active HIGH (5V), which causes
the left engine to stop. This behavior corrects the path of the Fig. 3: UML Activity Diagram of the Software Design
robot back to the established path line. Similarly, if the right
side sensor (RS) goes over the path line, the right engine is
switched OFF to maintain the robot within its intended track.
Once the robot returns to the normal path, the engine that specific case, we have used two Lithium-Ion batteries in
is OFF is switched ON again (as the corresponding optical series with a discharge capacity of 4.2 Ah (ampére-hour) and
sensor outputs a LOW for reading the regular floor). with an operation of 3.6 volts each. The current consumption
measurements indicated that the robotics kit drains a current
C. Power system of approximately 1.2 A in its full-fledged operation, leading
Clearly, we must select an adequate power supply for the to an autonomy of around three hours and thirty minutes (as
correct and long-lasting operation of the robotics kit. In this expected, this value is obtained by the ratio of the power

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capacity by the power consumption of the system, i.e. 4,2Ah1,2A its introduction in early 2013. The goal of these courses
= 3.5 hours). was to disseminate the understanding and practice of basic
Notice that all electronic material is subject to external electronics, introductory robotics and embedded programming.
environment effects, thus increasing the consumption and The workshop follows a step-by-step learning approach that
decreasing the life span of the batteries. We should also recall students and teachers alike may use to assemble, configure
that Lithium-Ion batteries have a negligible memory effect, and program the robot in the classroom. This approach is
that is, they do not vitiate. In practice this means that we documented in a booklet that has been carefully conceived to
can recharge the batteries at any time and at different periods allow the interaction of practices of the robotics workshop with
of time. It is interesting to highlight that they store twice as the many concepts involved in the construction of the robot.
much energy as a nickel metal hydride (NiMH) battery and It explains the operating principles of the components used,
three times as much as a nickel cadmium (NiCd) one. such as sensors, engines, and resistors. The course also tackles
aspects of robot operation, robot control and architecture. It
D. Costs combines both theory and practice following the structure
illustrated in Table II.
Table I highlights the fact that a large budget is not needed
to introduce this robotics kit and workshop in schools, as low- TABLE II: Stepwise Learning Approach
cost and easy-to-find components have been employed (Notes:
the main components used in the robotics kit and their cost are
expressed in US dollars; the values displayed are the market Steps Contents
(Learning Modules)
average cost obtained from different local suppliers; the list of
suppliers can be made available upon request ). What are we going to learn Workshop introduction
The “other components” are voltage regulators and small Introduction to Robotics
analog electronic elements such as resistors, diodes, LED’s, What is Robotics Robotic Generation
engine current drivers, connectors, cables, and materials for Sample Applications
the in-house design of the printed circuit boards. Introduction to Arduino
Notice that quite hefty government taxation is embedded What is Arduino What is Arduino for
in the final cost (at least an overhead of 60% over imported Features
goods and an additional 18 % of state taxes) that turn the kit Installing and setting up
relatively expensive from an international perspective, despite Learning to Program Introduction to programming
the effort of reducing costs. Additionally, this cost analysis with Minibloq Block programming
considered only retail prices, and clearly it can be improved The minibloq environment
from bulk/wholesale prices once the kit is mass produced. Resistor, Capacitor
Electronic Components Diode, LED
TABLE I: Robotics Kit Cost Introduction to
Integrated circuits (IC)
Introduction to sensor- and sensor systems
Description # Units Cost (USD)
What are Sensors Sensor systems and types
Sample Applications
Smart car chassis + motor + wheels 1 15.80
Introduction to major functional blocks
Lithium-Ion Battery (3.7 V - 4.2 Ah) 2 10.98
Robot Architecture Communication and interfacing
Arduino Uno 1 8.30
(basic) between blocks (overview)
Dual-in-Line IC Socket 1 1.00
Introduction to block/functional diagrams
Heat sink 1 0.15
Introduction to robot operation
Optical Sensor 4 1.80 Robot Operation The path control software
Battery holder case 1 5.00 Introduction to Activity Diagrams
Motor Controller Chip L293D IC 1 0.60
Other components 1 50.00
Total — 93.63 Most of the course focuses on programming, adopting either
the C programming language or Minibloq, depending on the
level of knowledge of the students. The programming exercises
of this course are performed using the kit as a motivation tool.
IV. E VALUATION AND R ESULTS Over the first two years using the kit, students were asked
The general requirements initially set forth for the design to give feedback about the use of the kit to illustrate the
of the robotics kit were fully met, although the analysis of concepts of the workshop. The following questions were asked
some of the requirements may be rather subjective. These as part of a survey: 1) Was the course load enough for your
were validated mainly through workshops using the robotics understanding of basic robotics?, 2) Has the robotic kit and
kit with the target audience, i.e. the high-school students from the course helped you with your development and progress at
local schools, which were applied on a regular basis since school?, 3) Has the workshop and kit facilitated programming

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and learning programming concepts?, 4) Has the kit got you a further reduction in costs of around 10-20%; 2) Enhancing
interested in robotics? and 5) Has the robotic kit helped you the functionality of the robotics kit in a modular fashion while
understand and learn basic electronics?. keeping it simple. Each new functional module is also added
Fig. 4 summarizes the results of this analysis. to the kit as a new pedagogical/learning unit, thus increasing
the learning choices; 3) Another parallel development, more
from a cosmetic perspective, is concerned with providing the
robotics kit with an attractive body design for high-school
students (e.g. such as the one from a Formula 1 racing car).
In conclusion, the use of this robotics kit revealed that it is
possible to design and develop projects in educational robotics
at a relatively low cost, which are easy to build and implement
and therefore are accessible to the reality of the Brazilian
schools.

R EFERENCES
[1] R. Connaughton and M. Modlin, “A modular and extendable robotics
platform for education,” in Frontiers in Education Conference, 2009. FIE
’09. 39th IEEE, 2009, pp. 1–4.
[2] M. Rubenstein, C. Ahler, and R. Nagpal, “Kilobot: A low cost scalable
robot system for collective behaviors,” in Robotics and Automation
(ICRA), 2012 IEEE International Conference on, 2012, pp. 3293–3298.
[3] F. Mondada, M. Bonani, X. Raemy, J. Pugh, C. Cianci, A. Klaptocz,
S. Magnenat, J. christophe Zufferey, D. Floreano, and A. Martinoli, “The
e-puck, a robot designed for education in engineering,” in In Proceedings
of the 9th Conference on Autonomous Robot Systems and Competitions,
2009, pp. 59–65.
Fig. 4: Results [4] J. McLurkin, J. Rykowski, M. John, Q. Kaseman, and A. J. Lynch,
“Using multi-robot systems for engineering education: Teaching and
outreach with large numbers of an advanced, low-cost robot.” IEEE Trans.
It shows that 100 percent of the students agree that the Education, vol. 56, no. 1, pp. 24–33, 2013.
robotics kit has helped the understanding of electronics and [5] J. McLurkin, A. Lynch, S. Rixner, T. Barr, A. Chou, K. Foster, and
S. Bilstein, “A low-cost multi-robot system for research, teaching, and
programming (question 5). The lowest score was on the item outreach,” in Distributed Autonomous Robotic Systems, ser. Springer
“ease of programming and learning programming concepts Tracts in Advanced Robotics, A. Martinoli, F. Mondada, N. Correll,
(question 3)”, where slightly over 80 percent of the students G. Mermoud, M. Egerstedt, M. A. Hsieh, L. E. Parker, and K. Sty, Eds.
Springer Berlin Heidelberg, 2013, vol. 83, pp. 597–609.
agree (completely or partially) on the simplicity or easiness in [6] A. Sipitakiat, P. Blikstein, and D. P. Cavallo, “Gogo board: Augmenting
programming and learning programming through the robotic programmable bricks for economically challenged audiences,” in In
kit. However, with the fine-tuning of the workshop, these Proceedings of the International Conference of the Learning Sciences,
2004, pp. 481–488.
scores are expected to improved over the years 3 . In general, [7] J. Filho, W. Almeida, and S. Martins, “Development of a multitasking
the results show that the robotics kit performed well as a mobile robot for the construction of educational robotics kits,” in Elec-
learning tool according to the majority of students consulted. tronic Devices, Systems and Applications (ICEDSA), 2011 International
Conference on, 2011, pp. 213–216.

V. C ONCLUSION
This project allows technology to be used to support and
motivate learning. The results obtained in the development
of this robotics kit along with the realization of several
workshops led to the conclusion that the proposal is eco-
nomically feasible, taking in consideration its low cost. This
low cost is (partially) due to the independence of suppliers of
parts and components. This contrasts with robotics kits such
as Lego, Fischer and other manufacturers, which have their
own standard and proprietary components. Another interesting
aspect of this project is the step-by-step approach to learning
the kit, which is a vital part of this work.
We are currently extending the design and working on three
separate ideas: 1) A new version that replaces the Arduino
with conventional combinational logic. This simplified ver-
sion prevents students from learning programming concepts
directly from the robot, through Arduino, but may represent
3 This score also tends to improve with classes where the level of knowledge
among students is more homogeneous

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 A PPENDIX

TABLE III: Robotic Kits Cost (approximate) Comparison

N Robot Cost Author/Company Web Link /

Reference
01 Kilobot 14 USD Rubenstein et al www.k-team.com [2]
02 GoGo Board 30 USD Sipitakiat et al [6]
03 Multi-task Robot 55 USD Filho et al [7]
04 This work’s robotics kit 100 USD Junior et al www.ft.unicamp.br
05 Roomba Create 100 e iRobot www.irobot.com
06 Parallax 149 USD Parallax Inc. www.parallax.com
07 Bot’n Roll 175 SAR Lda www.botnroll.com
08 Low Cost Multi-Robot 220 USD McLurkin [4] [5]
09 Lego Mindstorms (NXT) 260 LEGO www.lego.com
10 Circular GT 210 e IdMind www.idmind.pt
11 Tomy I-Sobot 299 USD Tomy www.isobotrobot.com
12 Hemisson 225 e K-Team www.k-team.com
13 ER1 (basic config.) 230 e Evolution Robotics www.evolution.com
14 Palm Pilot (basic) 250 e Carnegie Mellon (CMU) www.cs.cmu.edu
15 Modular,Extendible Kit > 400 USD Connaughton, Modlin [1]
16 Cye 540 e Educational Robot www.personalrobots.com
17 E-Puck 550 e Mondada et al www.e-puck.org [3]
18 Bioloid Comprehensive 899 USD Bioloid www.robotis.com
19 KHR-1 1000 e Kondo www.kondo-robot.com
20 Garcia (basic) 1360 e Acroname www.acroname.com
21 Kephera II (basic) 1500 e K-Team www.k-team.com
22 AmigoBot 1550 e ActivMedia www.mobilerobots.com
23 Kephera III 2000 e K-Team www.k-team.com
24 Robotino 4500 e Festo www.festo-didactic.com