Willow Garage’s TurtleBot is available for pre-orders.TurtleBot kits are expected to start shipping in early summer as units become available. You will not be charged until the kits ship.
The core kit is $500, which includes:
USB Communications Cable
TurtleBot Power and Sensor Board
TurtleBot Hardware
Microsoft Kinect
TurtleBot to Kinect Power Cable
USB Stick TurtleBot Installer
The complete TurtleBot (which is what’s in the pictures and video) is $1200, and adds the following to the core kit:
iRobot Create Robot
3000 mAh Ni-MH Battery
Fast Charger
Asus EeePc 1215N
Kinect Hacks to Go
The TurtleBot gives a new dimension of possibilities to your Kinect hacking: the ability to drive.
TurtleBot can explore your house on its own, build 3D pictures, bring you food, take panoramas, and more
Ready to Innovate
TurtleBot comes with an open-source SDK based on ROS to help you develop applications right out of the box.
The TurtleBot SDK integrates all the software you need to get TurtleBot running and comes with advanced capabilities like mapping and navigation.
Open Source, Open Community
TurtleBot comes with the best low-cost hardware components to give you a capable, autonomous platform for developing robot applications. The iRobot Create, Kinect, netbook, and gyro are all integrated together to get the most out of each.
Multiple mounting locations let you customize TurtleBot to your own needs.
The TurtleBot lets you tap into the creativity and support of the ROS Community.
Thanks to this community, there are thousands of software packages for robotics you can use with ROS. You can tap into powerful computer vision libraries like OpenCV and PCL, find drivers for hardware add-ons, and test advanced research algorithms.
If you liked this article, please give it a quick review on ycombinator or StumbleUpon. Thanks
Brian Wang is a Futurist Thought Leader and a popular Science blogger with 1 million readers per month. His blog Nextbigfuture.com is ranked #1 Science News Blog. It covers many disruptive technology and trends including Space, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Medicine, Anti-aging Biotechnology, and Nanotechnology.
Known for identifying cutting edge technologies, he is currently a Co-Founder of a startup and fundraiser for high potential early-stage companies. He is the Head of Research for Allocations for deep technology investments and an Angel Investor at Space Angels.
A frequent speaker at corporations, he has been a TEDx speaker, a Singularity University speaker and guest at numerous interviews for radio and podcasts. He is open to public speaking and advising engagements.