BEAPER Bot

BEAPER (Beginner Electronics and Programming Educational Robot) Bot is a 3D-printable BEAPER Bot robot chassis ecosystem that has been developed for use with either the BEAPER Nano (for Arduino Nano ESP32) or BEAPER Pico (for the Raspberry Pi Pico family) educational microcontroller PCBs. The BEAPER Bot robot components, along with a 4 AA battery holder, two low current N20 gear motors with plastic drive wheels, and a roller ball castor allow beginners to quickly and easily build flexible and sophisticated small robots using either of the BEAPER Nano or BEAPER Pico circuits.

BEAPER is designed using Tinkercad

The BEAPER Nano and BEAPER Pico circuits were developed for use in education settings such as schools, electronics clubs, and maker spaces, and to complement their educational focus the entire BEAPER Bot ecosystem of robot components has been designed in Tinkercad to allow for easy modification and enhancement by students and teachers.

Fastener-less Construction and Simple Add-ons!

BEAPER Bot is designed so that all of its components snap together without needing screws, greatly simplifying construction. Motors are clipped in using specially designed motor mounting clips, the battery holder slides into place, and the BEAPER Nano or BEAPER Pico PCBs snap on top in one of two different orientations, allowing BEAPER to be built as a rear-drive robot (better for line following robots), or as a front-drive robot (better for Sumo robots, vacuum bots, or material handling robots).

BEAPER Bot features dove-tail slots around its perimeter, enabling optical floor modules to be installed in multiple positions as well as allowing students to easily create add-on modules to support different types of electronic devices and add mechanical components such as arms, bumpers, or ramps for Sumo robots. A number of different types of servo mounts have been created, as well as blank dove-tail plates for robot builders to quickly start creating their own add-on parts.

BEAPER Bot Chassis Designs

The BEAPER Bot chassis is available in three styles: basic chassis with dove-tail slots, a chassis with an integrated ToF sensor mount for rear-drive robots, and a chassis with an integrated ToF sensor mount for front-drive robots. All chassis designs include four motor mounting clips – two for use in holding the two motors, and two as spares.

Basic BEAPER Bot chassis

BEAPER Bot chassis with ToF mount - front drive version

BEAPER Bot chassis with ToF mount - rear-drive version

BEAPER Bot Motor Mount Accessories

Each BEAPER Bot chassis has molded-in motor mounts and comes with four motor mounting clips that slide over the installed N20 gear motors to securely clip them into place. Only two motor mounting clips are needed, but the clips are easily damaged on removal so spare clips are available. Installation of the motor mounting clips is made easier using the Motor Mounting Tool.

Spare motor mount clips

Motor Mount Tool

Optical Floor Sensor Module Mounts

Optical floor sensor module mounts are designed to hold the break-away floor sensor PCBs that can be snapped off either the BEAPER Nano or BEAPER Pico PCBs. These mounts have dove-tail tabs that slide into dove-tail slots on the outside walls of the BEAPER Bot chassis.

The dual-phototransistor floor sensor module can be mounted in the centre position of the rear-drive BEAPER Bot chassis to build a line-following robot, or both floor sensor modules can be mounted in opposite sides of the BEAPER bot to act as floor sensors for Sumo robot designs or to prevent robots from falling off table tops or down the stairs.

Optical floor sensor module mounts

Servo Mounts

A variety of optional servo mounts have been created to hold commonly-available 9G plastic- and metal-gear servos. Each BEAPER PCB has the ability to control up to 4 servos, and these mounts make it easy to create robots with customizable arms, scoops, or sensor positioning systems.

Basic snap-in servo holders (vertical)

Snap-in servo holders (horizontal)

Left servo holder

Right servo holder

Dove-tail Plates

Use these dove-tail plates to quickly begin creating your own add-ons for the BEAPER Bot chassis. There are both tall and short 2-wide plates, as well as a tall 3-wide plate to get you started.

Dove tail plates