Qualcomm has unveiled a 3D printable robot Snapdragon Micro Rover with an aim to harness the computing power and capabilities of a smartphone and apply that to interesting applications in robotics.
The Micro Rover is powered by a smartphone with a Snapdragon processor, is easily printed on a 3D printer and has a forklift that allows the robot to manipulate its world. Qualcomm has also leveraged the advanced compute functionality built into Snapdragon powered smartphones and added autonomous control to enable the Micro Rover to follow targets and be more than just a robot.
Qualcomm has provided the 3D-printable design for free so that developers, educators, DIYers and anyone interested in robotics can download and customize their own smartphone-powered robot.
The Micro Rover uses the IOIO board as an I/O break-out to connect to the Android controlling device via Bluetooth or Android Accessory Development Kit (accessories.android.com). Developers can use a smartphone as the Android device to connect to the IOIO board. The company says that the Micro Rover needs five AA batteries to operate and recommends to use re-chargeable batteries.