To get Herbie to work, we did have to change a few things from the directions. They tell you to use double-sided foam tape (provided) to attach the motors. However, when we did that, we couldn’t fit the battery in. We just removed the tape, reheated the solder to move the motor closer to the board, and glued it on with Sumo Glue. We also discovered that Herbie will not follow LED flashlights; they just don’t put out enough infrared.

The Boe consists of an aluminum frame, upon which two servomotors, a battery holder, and a BASIC Stamp 2 microcontroller board are mounted.

Over the years Parallax has developed numerous add-ons. One I like best is the servo-operated gripper, which makes the Boe-Bot look like a nasty pincher bug. The gripper can lift small objects like chess pieces and ping pong balls, but it won’t fetch a beer — unless it’s a very small beer from a very short fridge.

Suitable for first-time builders, the Boe-Bot takes about 2 hours to build. The gripper kit requires a bit more skill; plan on another hour. Other nifty accessories include a six-legged walker kit and an infrared line-following module.

This kit includes the fiberglass chassis, all stepper and servomotors and other parts, and the fully assembled and tested USB motor driver board; you provide computer, egg, and pen. A deluxe kit adds shiny brass hardware

This entertaining kit, suitable for kids 12 and up, lets you build three different tracked robots. You start by assembling separate modules, then snap the modules together to create a rover, forklift bot, or gripper crawler. You can always unsnap the modules and reconfigure them for another style. I built the forklift version, spending about three hours while watching reruns of Star Trek. The assembly manual is clear and concise, with great 3D pictures to show how things go together.

The robots are motorized using a wired control box. Two motors operate the left- and right-side tracks, while a third motor operates an extended mechanism — the forklift goes up and down, for example, and the gripper opens and closes.

The ATR is immensely hackable, thanks to its modular design. Unplug the 4-pin connector from the control box, and substitute your own microcontroller. Looks like there’s just enough room on top for an Arduino, a motor shield, and some LiPoly batteries. Seems like I’ll be watching more Trek episodes!

Most useful of all, a remote control menu offers direction and speed control for two motors and an action button to control one motor independently. This lets you test motors without having to program anything!

I’d like to see more programmable storage memory, but overall this is a nice refresh for Mindstorms NXT. It’s an excellent kit for budding robot enthusiasts and also a great gift for veterans.

This is not a project for beginners, but thanks to clear documentation and well-organized components, anyone with moderate soldering skills and sufficient patience shouldn’t have much trouble. It ships with analog “discrete brain” circuitry, but “brainboard” kits let you add popular microcontrollers.

Topobo is part construction toy, part kinetic memory robot. By combining solid parts with active motor/brain hubs (learning servos) you can spend hours creating unlikely creatures with even more unlikely forms of locomotion.

My young kids immediately got how to record and play back the motion of their creations; press a button, perform a few poses, press the button again, and it’s alive! I wanted to save movements between sessions, but my kids understood before I did that Topobo is about exploring novel methods of movement, not reproducing past creations.

Our only complaints: the Lego Technic-compatible connectors are hard to remove, and we’d prefer batteries to being tethered to the wall with the power supply wire.

All arms in the product line are based on the company’s Servo Erector Set parts. These are prefab aluminum pieces designed to mate with standard R/C servomotors. You can buy SES parts separately, too, for your own arm designs, or to modify one of the stock arm models.

The AL5B is for experienced builders. The hardware comes in numerous bags, and it can be a trick keeping track of everything. I suggest you open each bag only when you need it, and keep a measuring tape nearby to check the length of screws. Study the online assembly instructions ahead of time while you wait for your kit to arrive. The kit doesn’t require soldering, but needs a base you supply. I used a piece of ½”-thick plastic.

Included in the AL5B kit is Lynxmotion’s SSC-32 servo controller board. Connect it to your PC (via serial cable or USB-to-serial adapter), and run the free FlowArm software to control the motion of each joint. Record
complex motions and play them back with the click of a button.

This bot, which is strong enough to cart around a full-grown person balancing on its ⅝”-thick HDPE deck, runs on a pair of automotive power window motors and pneumatic rubber wheels.

The kit comes with motor drivers and ten (count ’em!) Ping ultrasonic rangers that ring the base and give the robot its mythological Medusa look. You supply the battery, switches, fuses, and microcontroller — I’ve used both an Arduino Mega 2560 and a Parallax Propeller. The motor drivers are controlled via serial commands, and their position encoders let you specify travel distances before a stop or turn.