The ASURO

Hello everyone!

Since the beginning of October, I visit a University for electronics and robotics (THI).

In order to get the students in with electronics, robotics and soldering, we got a little robot kit to solder: the Asuro.

Asuro: what’s that?

The Asuro is a small, Atmega8L based 2-Motor robot with a bunch of sensors. It was invented in , it’s name is an acronym for “Another Small and Unique Robot from Oberpfaffenhofen”. It has 6 pushbuttons in the front as collision sensors, 2 photodiodes on the bottom to “look” at the ground, 2 photodiodes to measure how fast the wheels are spinning and a IR terminal to communicate with a computer or to program the whole thing. It’s powered with 4 AAA batteries (6V) and can be programmed with C or a graphical program.

Why buying an Asuro?

The Asuro-kit is cheap (around 50$), has nearly no limits in functionality and you learn how to solder small parts and how to program in C. You can even expand it with more sensors, for example a ultrasonic sensor for distance control and more.

How is it built ?

Well, as you can see, the circuit is not very easy, but you get a pretty good manual and soldering should be done in less than 3 hours.

In the beginning, you have to solder the axes to the main board. That can be tricky, because they have to be leveled and straight.

After that, you begin to solder the parts (resistors, capacitors, LEDs, diodes etc..) on the board, beginning with the small ones so you don’t run in problems soldering small pieces to the board that is surrounded by bigger ones.

When you’re done with that, you have to solder the motors and the battery holder to the board. This part can get tricky and messy, because you have to mount the motors with zip ties to the exact location it intertwines with the gears of the wheel.

And when you’re done with that, insert the chip, fix the wheels in place and you’re pretty much ready to go!

The only thing left is to cut a table tennis ball in half and hot glue it to the bottom as a sliding wheel, so the movement of the Asuro is based on the 2 rear motors.

Now, the Asuro is completely build.

Pictures of the Sensors

The Pushbuttons

The photodiodes for speed measurement.

The IR Communication

The bottom photodiodes

What can it do?

Well, you can program it however you want. If you chose to use the bottom photodiodes, you can program it to follow a line. If you choose to use a ultrasonic sensor or the pushbuttons, you can replicate a vacuum cleaner robot. And if you choose to use all of its sensors, and even modify it a bit, there are no limits of what you can do with an Asuro.

I found a Video of an Asuro following a line perfectly:

That’s it, I hope you enjoyed reading.