3D Printing

Wondering How Delta Robots Work? Get Your Own for $95

Let’s clear this up right away: this is not about getting a delta 3D printer for less than 100 dollars. This is about a delta architecture robot, that is the robot that moves the delta-type 3D printers’ head, but without all the 3D printing stuff around it.

Sarah Petkus (“project mistress”) and Mark Koch (“the dev team”) have a dream: to build a giant delta robot army and experiment with it. The inspiration comes from Sarah’s artistic vision of herself inside “a sea of robotic lightbulb flowers”. This is what the Delta robots will do: it may seem like an odd idea but there is little denying that hundreds of robots moving a light in a controlled manner can make for quite an amazing art installation.

kit The Robot Army kickstarter

The Robot Army kickstarter campaign, selling a delta robot starter kit for $95, is a way for Sarah and Mark to finance this project. For each robot purchased they will be able to add a new one to their army. The kit includes all of the delta’s mechanical pieces in grey and neon fluorescent yellow plastic, all of the spacers, brackets (3), ball bearings, and hardware required to assemble them, the electronic components, the PCB brain board (programmable with Arduino) and the wire harness needed to wire it up and give the delta power.

The Delta Robots differ from the ones used in 3D printers and in very advanced industrial robots in that they are built upside down: instead of three arms moved from above to control a single pint placed below, the arms are moved from the base and control a single point, with a LED light, at the top of the robot.

The Robot Army kickstarter

So, you may ask, what exactly would I need a delta robot for? Apart from any new use one could think of, from connecting to a Kinect interface to unleashing a synchronized mechanical army set for world domination, Delta robots are particularly important in the education (engineering and robotics) sector.

As Philippe Boichut, creator of the Spiderbot Delta, once told me, delta robots are extremely common in the industry but studying the way they work is not so simple at an academic level because up until recently, they were extremely expensive. Now one can be purchased for less than $100. With all the complex delta math for calibrating it already figured out by Mark and Sarah.

By the time you read this, the Kickstarter campaign will be over: the minimum goal has been reached so this project is go. If you’re still interested in getting a Delta Robot you should soon be able to do so through the Robot Army official website. I’m still not exactly sure what Sarah and Mark’s final objective is, but after seeing the Kickstarter pitch you are probably going to want to give them a hand too.