About us

 From AI to Robotics

For many years, as a software engineer, I have applied AI and machine learning to a handful of industries, each time marveling at how it brought machines closer to how people really work and operate.  Being a robot enthusiast, I wondered what software could do to expand the simplest of robots to it maximum potential for people.  I recognized there are a wide range of simple mobile robots on the market today.  But the robotic arm were under served.  Either they were too simplistic in what you could do with it, or they were out of the price range for anyone to learn and explore from.  The reason was simple, to have a robot arm to do anything useful required high precision hardware and motors.  I asked myself, "could a simple and low cost robot arm be made useful if coupled with advanced software?"  That’s when SimpleARM was born.  The answer was an astounding YES!.  Not only could great software make a simple arm useful, it enabled people to experience features only available to those who could afford high quality hardware.  Easy and intuitive programming, drawing, music, puppetry and more became an enjoyable experience.  The ability to record and playback, and fine tune your recordings, then reuse them became central to the endless possibilities of exploration.  It fulfilled the curiosity of knowing that a robot arm could do amazing things, but how, and, I want to try it and see it for myself.  For too long robot arms have been a research project.  The complexities of its many joints and angles, couple with it high price tag left it in the hands of universities or manufacturing plants.  But with the merger of advanced software with ubiquitous hardware, this can now change.  SimpleARM is an experiment to see how far software can take us even with the simplest of hardware.  Join me in this experiment.  By a kit today to support this effort.  And show the world what a simple arm, with some advanced software can do.

How is this possible

The key technology for making this possible is servo profiling.  This means the analyzing of each individual motor as its used within the robot to determine its unique performance characteristics.  The software then uses this analysis to make inexpensive hardware operate smoothly and in concert with the whole system, adding accuracy and precision throughout.  But good servo profiling can only take it so far.  The ability to fine tune and adjust your movements is crucial to a well operating robot.  SimpleARM has a full feature ability to test, tune, and recompose movement to get them perfect, all in an intuitive way, without having you enter numbers, math or coding.

Integrated Kinematics

SimpleARM relies on advanced kinematics algorithms to synchronize your robot with a 3d model in real time.  It also gives you the freedom of moving and programming your robot in cartesian space (X, Y, Z) without having to worry about joins and angles.

Real-time Interactive 3D

SimpleARM doesn't require you to work in lists of numbers or lines of code to program your robot.  Instead SimpleARM synchronized with a real-time 3D model.  Moving the arm in real life moves the model.  But you can also move the model in 3D to synchronize back to your arm.  The interaction is seamless and intuitive the moment you try it.  There is no better way to work with your robot than by touching it, weather in real life, or the 3D model.  Bi-directional synchronization is a true hallmark of SimpleARM's intuitive UI.

The future

I hope to continue the experiment.  To expand SimpleARM with machine vision, to make it wireless and run from your phone.  With your feedback and efforts as a community I hope to make available a variety of arms that will maximize its potential.  Your support today, through purchasing a kit and contributing to the community, will allow the experiment to continue.