Atmel powers Mirobot WiFi robotics kit

Mirobot – created by Ben Pirt – is an Atmel-powered (ATmega328 MCU) DIY WiFi robotic kit designed to help children learn about technology and programming.

“It’s fun to build and easy to start programming it to draw shapes. The chassis is laser cut and snaps together quite easily. Mirobot is robust, but also quite simple. Kids can understand how it works and what it does,” Pirt explained in a recent Kickstarter post.

“There’s no slick plastic casing because I think children are more interested in things when they can see what’s going on inside. With Mirobot, the mechanisms are all easily visible – it’s designed to remove the mystery and help understanding.”

Aside from the ATmega328 MCU, key tech specs include:

• WiFi module that also acts as an access point
• Battery powered with AA batteries
• Two stepper motors for control
• Self-hosted javascript application to control Mirobot from a web page (no software to install)
• Open WebSocket or raw socket JSON-based command protocol
• Easily reprogrammable
• All unused pins brought out to an easily accessible header
• Uses the standard external USB programming connector

Mirobot can be programmed in a number of different ways, including a web-based GUI which is similar to LOGO, albeit with drag and drop.

“Mirobot is a completely open robotics platform – all of the code and designs are open-source so you can modify them to make it do exactly what you want. One of the big benefits of this is that as people make it do new and interesting things, they can be shared with the community to everyone’s benefit,” Pirt added.

“If you want to experiment with the Arduino then you can easily reprogram Mirobot with your own custom code. Want to add some sensors and make it sentient? There’s an expansion port designed for just that.”

Interested in learning more? You can check out Mirobot’s Kickstarter page here and the project’s official page here.