Low-Cost Robots for Research and Teaching Activities

Increase robot utilization may be viewed in term of low-cost designs and operations, which are based on the use of products from the market for the robot components. Low-cost robots are related to new emerging application areas. The market components give the possibility to build robots at a low price but they also reduce the capability of robots to specific tasks. Low-cost robots can be also operated in a simpler way compared to the typical industrial robots. In this paper, an overview is presented on low-cost robots by discussing basic characteristics, applications, and motivation for a future success. The importance of low-cost robots can be recognized in the fact that they can be available everywhere at different level of cost and complexity. Therefore, the aim of the paper is to suggest the use of low-cost robots both for teaching and investigation to any teacher and researcher in any Institution with the possibility to achieve significant results both in teaching and research activities. Particular attention has been addressed to research and teaching activities in University Institutions with the aim to stress the fundamental role of engineers formation in Robotics by using low-cost robots with even novel solutions for. Examples of a successful activity by using low-cost robots have been illustrated as those developed at LARM, the Laboratory of Robotics and Mechatronics in Cassino, Italy.