Robotis Bioloid

The Robotis Bioloid (stylized as ROBOTIS BIOLOID) is a hobbyist and educational robot kit produced by the South Korean robot manufacturer Robotis. The Bioloid platform consists of components and small, modular servomechanisms called the AX-12A Dynamixels, which can be used in a daisy-chained fashion to construct robots of various configurations, such as wheeled, legged, or humanoid robots. The Robot is programmed with RoboPlus, C (programming language) based software.^[1] The Bioloid system is thus comparable to the Lego Mindstorms, and VEX Robotics VEXplorer kits.^{[citation needed]}

Humanoid robot constructed using the Bioloid kit

Dog modelled in Webots using the Bioloid Kit

Kit types

There are multiple variations of the Bioloid kit:^[2]

• Robotis Bioloid Beginner – includes parts and designs for 14 robot types; discontinued
• Robotis Bioloid Comprehensive – includes parts and designs for 26 robot types; discontinued
• Robotis Bioloid Expert – designed for education or research use; discontinued^[1]
• Robotis Bioloid Premium – upgraded and latest version of Bioloid Comprehensive Kit builds 29 different configurations
• Robotis Bioloid GP – intended for robot competitions
• Robotis Darwin-Mini Humanoid Robot – 3d printed shell allows infinite customization options
• Robotis Bioloid STEM Standard – includes parts and designs for 7 robot types
• Robotis Bioloid STEM Expansion – includes parts and designs for 9 robot types; requires purchase of STEM Standard

TurtleBot 3 and other platforms

Turtlebot 3, announced in 2016 and developed in collaboration with Robotis and the Open Source Robotics Foundation, is the smallest and cheapest of the TurtleBots.

Other Robotis platforms include: Robotis OP 2, Robotis Manipulator, and ThorMang3.

TB3 plug-ins for Gazebo

Robotis has TurtleBot3 plug-ins for the Gazebo robotics simulator that allow simulating a TB3 Burger, Waffle, or Waffle Pi.

Applications

The platform is currently in use by the U.S. Naval Academy in their mechanical engineering courses,^[3] and is also popular in the RoboCup international robotics competition ^[4] and FIRA competition.

Year	Country	Application	Work by
2007	UK	Bioloid based Humanoid Soccer Robot Design[5]	Joerg Wolf, University of Plymouth
2014	Iran	Bioloid used to teach children how to pray[6]	Akbar Rezaie, schoolteacher
2014	USA	Extra Pair of Fingers[7]	MIT
2016	Unknown	Bioloid/Dynamixel planar biped robot, MATLAB control - simple movements[8]	deDasil

See also

• TurtleBot
• DARwIn-OP now known as Robotis OP2

References

1. "Bioloid". Retrieved 2011-03-09.
2. "Do-it-yourself Educational Robot Kit, which includes everything you need for making robots". Robotis. Archived from the original on 2012-05-08. Retrieved 2011-03-09.
3. "US Navy Academy to Acquire 50 Robotis Bioloid Humanoid Robot Kits from KumoTek". 19 July 2007.
4. "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-03-13. Retrieved 2012-10-27.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
5. Wolf, Joerg Christian; Hall, Phil; Robinson, Paul; Culverhouse, Phil (2007). Bioloid based Humanoid Soccer Robot Design (PDF). Joerg Christian Wolf (Report).
6. "Iranian school teacher builds robot to teach children prayers". Independent.co.uk. 26 February 2014.
7. "Here's That Extra Pair of Robot Fingers You've Always Wanted". IEEE Spectrum. 21 July 2014.
8. "Bioloid/Dynamixel planar biped robot, MATLAB control: fast steps". YouTube. Archived from the original on 2021-12-05.