EZ-Robot

EZ-Robot May Be the Easiest Way
to Build a Robot

EZ-Robot - one giant leap for robot making, one small [efficient] leap for programmers.

DJ Sures of Calgary, who says that he's “the world's biggest geek... in disguise,” has invented the EZ board and robot system, which is, quite possibly the easiest robot to build from a kit.

For $235 you get a kit that includes everything you need to transform one of your old toys into a functional robot. On the EZ-Robot.com Website you can see for yourself how DJ Sures created robots out of a Cookie Monster doll and a plastic Wall-E toy. DJ Sures attached servos to the Wall-E bot's tracks, arms, and neck, and installed a camera in his eye that enables him to track movement, colors, and faces. Thus equipped, the Wall-E robot is capable of autonomous movement and exploration.

This kit comes with a pre-assembled circuit board, a Bluetooth wireless controller, an ultrasonic distance sensor, a tracking camera, a battery pack, a power adapter, three standard servos, two continuous rotation servos, two peripheral cables, and five packages of servo attachments and wheels. The kit is designed to be used by those who have no programming experience.

Click HERE for Our Review of the EZ-Board and Software

The EZ Robot software offers a graphical design interface to make it easy for anyone to control their robotic creations from a computer. Programmers will be happy to hear that either Visual Studio .Net C# or Visual Basic can be used to control the robotic hardware. Are you into Arduino? The EZ Robot wireless controller, which is basically the robot's brain, is designed to be compatible with Arduino shields, sensors, and peripherals. Those who have experience with Arduino microcontrollers should be able to adapt quickly to working with the EZ-Robot wireless controller. 

What can you do with the EZ kit? The possibilities are almost limitless. You can configure the robot to track movement, colors, and human faces. You can set up auto collision detection. You can give your robot speech recognition as well as speech synthesis capabilities. You can attach a smart LED called the BlinkM that can flash, glow, blink, and change colors. You can add an MP3 trigger shield so that your robot can make sounds. You can set the robot to be controlled via a joystick, a Wii remote, or a touch pad tablet.

The EZ Robot also comes with iRobot Roomba support! You can use the wireless controller to drive your Roomba from your laptop or PC—or even remotely from your office. You can place the wireless camera on your Roomba and have it respond to movement, so that it can do things such as following your house pets. You can even have your Roomba act as a security patrol robot in your home. There are all kinds of reasons to get an EZ kit. This is the easiest robot to build.