Section: New Software and Platforms
Poppy Ergo Jr
Functional Description: Poppy Ergo Jr is an open hardware robot developed by the Poppy Project to explore the use of robots in classrooms for learning robotic and computer science.
It is available as a 6 or 4 degrees of freedom arm designed to be both expressive and low-cost. This is achieved by the use of FDM 3D printing and low cost Robotis XL-320 actuators. A Raspberry Pi camera is attached to the robot so it can detect object, faces or QR codes.
The Ergo Jr is controlled by the Pypot library and runs on a Raspberry pi 2 or 3 board. Communication between the Raspberry Pi and the actuators is made possible by the Pixl board we have designed.
The Poppy Ergo Jr robot has several 3D printed tools extending its capabilities. There are currently the lampshade, the gripper and a pen holder.
With the release of a new Raspberry Pi board early 2016, the Poppy Ergo Jr disk image was updated to support Raspberry Pi 2 and 3 boards. The disk image can be used seamlessly with a board or the other.