TinkerTrike is designed from the ground up for ease of use in transporting large compute power on a robot. The design is a robot from the start, not a converted motor scooter, RC Hobby truck or modified lawn mower. It harnesses Acroname technologies to produce a programmable mobility platform that is highly modular, generalized and flexible.
A common request from researchers is the need for a platform that can hold a laptop, a camera and navigate through indoor and outdoor environments. The result is a highly mobile, reconfigurable robot platform that leverages bicycle components, BrainStem technology and Symonym software to produce the most robust robot platform on the market. The TinkerTrike is a complete package perfect for advanced programming and robotics classes where algorithm development and deployment is the core focus.
The TinkerTrike is designed to carry laptop computers, ATX processors, cameras and reasonable payloads. Critical design choices led to the design and selection of all physical components. Modularized I/O panels are incorporated to allow the addition of a wide range of sensors, cameras, speakers or other I/O devices. Precise motor control and device I/O management is handled through the BrainStem controller network built into the robot. Many other design steps included:
3D mechanical frame design and component integration
Sensor integration
Camera boom design
Software support (APIs)
Technical information including hardware details, aRobot API documentation, examples and reference manuals are available in the TinkerTrike Central pages.