MicroPython-Powered Robotics for All: Fingers-On with the Arduino Alvik

When you’re attempting to nurture a love of robotics in a brand new technology, it helps to have an accessible platform for the aim — and that is precisely what Arduino delivers within the Alvik, a boxy two-wheeled robotic platform with a grinning face at its entrance.

Alvik is greater than the sum of its components, although. As with the corporate’s recently-launched Arduino PLC Starter Package, the Alvik comes full with pre-prepared courseware that walks the consumer — or the consumer’s college students — via a collection of MicroPython-based programming initiatives.

Learn on to see if Alvik delivers training excellence or will get caught up in its personal gears.

The {hardware}

• Microcontroller: Arduino Nano ESP32 (ESP32-S3 at 240MHz, 512kB SRAM, 384kB flash, 8MB exterior PSRAM, 16MB exterior flash)
• Coprocessor: STMicroelectronics STM32 (Arm Cortex-M4)
• Chassis: Two-wheel with bearing
• Motors: 2× 6V precision geared motors with encoders
• Sensors: Six-axis IMU, RGB coloration sensor, 7× capacitive contact on-board; Time of Flight (ToF) distance sensor and three× line-follower array in swappable sensor board
• Show: 2× RGB LEDs
• Connectivity: Wi-Fi, Bluetooth Low Vitality (BLE)
• Growth: 4× LEGO Technic mount factors, 8× M3 screw factors, 2× servo motor header, 2× I2C Grove, 2× I2C Qwiic
• Energy: 18650 lithium-ion battery (pre-installed), USB Sort-C
• Languages: MicroPython, Arduino (block-based visible programming deliberate, however not obtainable on the time of writing)
• Measurement: 96×96×37mm (round 3.8×3.8×1.5″)
• Weight: 200g (round 7oz)
• Worth: $140 (together with Alvik, battery, USB Sort-C to Sort-C cable, courseware entry)

Alvik is not a package: the compact robotic, measuring a bit of beneath 4 inches on a facet, comes ready-to-run straight out of the field. And we imply “able to run:” the Arduino Nano ESP32, which powers the robotic comes pre-flashed with a MicroPython firmware loaded with three instance applications, every demonstrating a distinct approach to management the robotic’s movement.

The highest of the robotic performs host to seven capacitive contact factors: a five-way joystick, a tick, and a cross. To both facet of those are a pair of RGB LEDs, fitted to the rear of the board and shining up via holes within the PCB. Energy the Alvik on via a small change on the rear and you should use these controls to choose which of the three pre-loaded MicroPython applications you wish to run — extra on that later.

Above these controls is what it’s possible you’ll assume is the center of the robotic, the Arduino Nano ESP32 itself. Constructed round a u-blox NORA-W106 module, the compact microcontroller board options an Espressif ESP32-S3 chip with a dual-core Tensilica Xtensa LX7 processor operating at 240MHz together with 8MB of pseudo-static RAM (PSRAM) and 16MB of flash reminiscence, plus on-board Wi-Fi and Bluetooth Low Vitality (BLE) radios. The Arduino Nano ESP32 is not soldered into place, however linked to feminine headers on the board’s reverse facet — if you wish to use it in a distinct mission, it is simply popped out.

Much less seen is the true coronary heart of the Alvik: an STMicroelectronics STM32 microcontroller, soldered in place on the PCB’s reverse facet. It is this that is really liable for driving the Alvik’s {hardware}; the Arduino Nano ESP32 merely serves as a platform for consumer functions, speaking with the STM32 over a pre-configured utility programming interface (API) to make the robotic do its methods.

Elsewhere within the Alvik platform is its sensor package deal: a six-axis inertial measurement unit (IMU) with accelerometer and gyroscope and an RGB coloration sensor that shines down although a cut-out within the chassis — doubling as a approach to entry boot-select and reset switches. These aren’t the one sensors on-board, although: Alvik’s cheery “face” is definitely a swappable sensor module, which encompasses a time-of-flight (ToF) distance sensor good out to round 350cm (round 11.5 toes) and a three-element line-following sensor array. This may be disconnected from the principle Alvik robotic and changed with an alternate sensor package deal, although on the time of writing no different “faces” have been obtainable.

The 2-wheeled chassis, with a ball bearing on the rear for stability, is pushed by a pair of 6V precision motors with built-in encoders, rated at 96 revolutions per minute and 70mA present unloaded. In testing, the motors delivered on the promised precision — as long as you ensure that the plastic wheels, with rubber tread, are correctly fitted and flush towards the robotic’s physique.

Out of the field

Because it’s fully-assembled, and there is even cost within the 18650 battery hidden beneath a sensibly screw-protected cowl, it is tempting to easily flip Alvik’s change and begin experimenting — and, to its credit score, Arduino expects you to do precisely that. Flip Alvik on and it will not begin racing across the room by itself; it’s going to simply flash its RGB LEDs and await additional instruction.

Tapping the capacitive buttons scrolls via the three pre-loaded MicroPython applications, which — with no on-board show — are recognized by coloration on the RGB LEDs. The crimson program is “Contact Mode,” in which you’ll be able to program the Alvik utilizing the capacitive contact factors on its rear, like a compact Massive Trak: three faucets ahead, two faucets proper, and three faucets again earlier than hitting the tick will ship Alvik away and again once more.

The inexperienced program is “Hand Follower,” a easy demonstration of the time-of-flight distance sensor on the robotic’s “face”: place your hand in entrance and Alvik will transfer to maintain a 10cm (round 4″) distance from it. Lastly, the blue program is a “Line Follower” that tracks a black line alongside a white floor. A few swipes with a thick marker on paper is sweet sufficient for this, although even higher outcomes can be found utilizing a strip of black electrical tape.

The supply code for all three applications is out there in Alvik’s flash reminiscence for investigation or modification, and might simply be accessed utilizing the Arduino Lab for MicroPython built-in improvement surroundings (IDE). That is designed as the first technique for programming Alvik, and is the software program round which the bundled courseware relies — but regardless of Arduino launching a industrial product constructed round it, the Arduino Lab for MicroPython remains to be described as “experimental pre-release software program.”

That does not imply it does not work: in our testing, the Arduino Lab for MicroPython, put in on a 64-bit Linux desktop, was completely responsive — even when it did not all the time match the screenshots within the documentation.

Courseware

The meat of that documentation is the bundled courseware, which Arduino payments as being aligned to frequent curricula and splendid for lecturers on the lookout for a quick-start approach to introduce college students as younger as eight to robotics and embedded improvement. It begins with a easy introductory walkthrough, masking software program setup, {hardware} connectivity, blinking the LEDs, and transferring the motors.

When you’re via that, which Arduino estimates will take round two hours, it is on to extra superior matters: precision motion management, automated angle-dependent pace management, coloration sensing, line following, and a hand-following mission primarily based across the ToF distance sensor — a two-hour mission, Arduino says, however an odd alternative given {that a} program for doing precisely that comes pre-loaded in Alvik’s reminiscence.

The course finishes with two four-hour “prolonged initiatives,” although regardless of their title the initiatives do not require any extra {hardware} apart from the Alvik itself — besides stuff you’re more likely to have mendacity round already, like books or blocks to behave as obstacles. All instructed, Arduino estimates there is a whole of 26 hours’ price of fabric included within the courseware — they usually’re all obtainable freed from cost, although you may must register for a free account on the Arduino web site to entry all of them.

The early, detailed-filled classes, although, quickly give approach to extra terse materials. The 2 “prolonged initiatives” — an escape room and a sensible site visitors system — are the shortest of all, and are actually extra mission outlines than fleshed out classes. No code is included, no options given, and no mark scheme supplied, that means that anybody utilizing them in a classroom surroundings can have a bit of homework of their very own earlier than letting their college students free.

Though the Alvik consumer guide — solely obtainable digitally, with no printed documentation within the field — guarantees “various studying paths via totally different programming languages together with MicroPython, Arduino C, and block-based coding,” on the time of writing the courseware was solely obtainable for MicroPython; these trying to make use of Arduino C must flash a brand new firmware from GitHub, with sparse documentation, and anybody hoping for a block-based visible coding surroundings will, on the time of writing, be upset to seek out nothing obtainable in any respect.

There’s one other huge omission within the courseware, too: protection of the robotic’s wi-fi connectivity. A giant promoting level of the Arduino Nano ESP32 is its built-in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth radios, however they’re completely ignored within the classes. On condition that distant management of a robotic is a standard use-case for such connectivity, it is a unusual exclusion.

Growth

Whereas the tutorial materials concentrates solely on what you may obtain with the Alvik robotic by itself — a laudable strategy, as the very last thing you need is for a trainer to determine their {hardware} price range would solely get them midway via the course — there’s loads of scope for enlargement each bodily and electronically.

Bodily, the Alvik’s plastic physique has 4 LEGO Technic-compatible connectors, two to every facet. Above and beneath every are nuts for M3 screws, that means it is simple to connect extra {hardware} to the robotic. For electronics, there are two every of Qwiic- and Grove-format connectors offering entry to an I2C bus for solderless connectivity to exterior {hardware}; a pin header between the 2 provides management for as much as two servo motors.

All instructed, the Alvik offers a tempting platform for experimentation — and the selection of the Arduino Nano ESP32, quite than a much less highly effective microcontroller board, means it could possibly even function a place to begin for on-device tiny machine studying (tinyML) and synthetic intelligence (AI) initiatives, because of vector acceleration directions included within the CPU’s design.

For this, although, you are going to be by yourself. The courseware concentrates solely on utilizing MicroPython to regulate an unexpanded Alvik, although the consumer guide offers transient pattern code demonstrating servo management, I2C bus scanning ,and interacting with an I2C OLED show linked to one of many two Qwiic ports.

Conclusion

There’s so much to like concerning the Alvik. It’s miles from the most affordable two-wheeled robotic platform on the market, however the {hardware} is strong and very effectively thought out. The one actual omission: an absence of cliff-edge sensors, which might stop the robotic from careening off a desk throughout classroom experimentation. As it’s, Arduino has taken the undeniably cheaper route of merely together with warnings about working the robotic close to sudden drops.

The courseware is well-written, and does not require the consumer to choose up any extra {hardware} — however in a difficulty of over-promising and under-delivering, which is echoed by the corporate’s PLC Starter Package courseware, the guide opens with the assertion that you will be studying to program the robotic in MicroPython, the Arduino IDE, and an unspecified block-based visible language, then solely delivers one-third of these languages.

For these merely working via the courseware, $140 might look like a tall order; for these trying to make use of the courseware as a jumping-off platform for self-directed experimentation, although, Alvik delivers a sturdy and strong platform with room for student-friendly enlargement. Get the Wi-Fi and BLE radios up and operating, and you have a robotic able to every thing from primary autonomous operation to wide-area distant management.

The Arduino Alvik is now obtainable to order on the Arduino Retailer.