PrintME 3D Makes 3D Printable Robots Accessible With New BQ Robotic Kits

London-based PrintME 3D is one of Europe’s leading 3D printing specialists, offering one-stop online shopping for many of your 3D printing needs. You can purchase 3D printers (they sell BQ, CEL Robox, Choc Edge, Cubify, MakerBot, TierTime, Ultimaker, Up!, and XYZprinting brands), 3D scanners (MakerBot Digitizer, Cube Sense, and Cube iSense), and all kinds of filaments, parts, and accessories. They also offer in-house printing services. But what makes the company really stand out is its 3D printable robot kits that range from more inexpensive and small printable robots to larger humanoid, hexapod, and rover style designs. Never has a 3D printable robot seemed more accessible than PrintME 3D’s selection of kits at affordable prices.

PrintME 3D robots kits start at $135.88 for some of the kits from BQ; they come with 10 electronic components and a battery holder. This kit allows you to assemble Printbot (and other games) with its electronic parts. You will also be able to print other robots and parts using PrintME 3D LoadME, and the kits come in four colors: green, red, yellow, and blue. The kits contain the following parts: one PrintBot, one control board, two IR sensors, one button, two light sensors, two buzzers, one Bluetooth module, one Potentiometer, two LEDs, two mini servos, and two continuous rotation parts. You also choose from a variety of filament colors, and the dimensions of the finished robot are 5 cm x 5 cm.

For just a little bit more money, you can purchase a 3D printable robot bug kit from BQ. PrintME 3D focuses on The BQ PrintBot Beetle’s educational value as it is “the perfect starter robot for teaching youngsters about the basics of programming and 3D printing.” Children can assemble, dissasemble, and print new beetle parts. They can also use the open source software to program the beetle.

PrintME 3D also knows there is a market for more sophisticated humanoid designed robots too. For $858.28, they offer “EZ-Robot JD,” a “fully functional humanoid robot” that is capable of interacting with human environments. Containing metal gear heavy duty servo motors, and a head with a camera to track vision modes such as motion, color, glyphs, faces, and QR codes, this robot contains one of the world’s most powerful and compact robot brains: the EZ-B v4. Each of the robot’s eyes has 9 programmable RGB LEDs — which can be configured in almost one million different ways. EZ-Builder software can help you customize JD’s movements, and PrintME 3D also makes available spare parts for you to print for your humanoid robot.

JD’s kit contains: one EZ-B v4 WiFi robot controller; one EZ-builder control software with apps; one humanoid head with camera; one humanoid body; six lever servo-motors; two servo-motor grippers; two two-servo-motor foot and ankle (left and right); two extension cables; one LiPo battery (7.4VDC 1300mAh); one LiPo battery balancer charger; and two wire spiral wraps. After printing and assembling the robot, it will stand at 17 cm x 30 cm and weigh 3 kg.

For the same price as the JD model, PrintME 3D also offers two other EZ-Robot models for all of your printable robot needs. There’s EZ-Robot SIX — “a hexapod creative robot platform”– that stands at 36 cm x 18 cm and has six legs. And the collection wouldn’t be complete without a rover styled robot, which can be found in the 23 cm x 32 cm sized EZ-Robot ROLI , a robot that can travel long distances on most terrains.

There is certainly something for everyone with PrintME 3D’s selection of robot kits. The company emphasizes the robots’ educational function, as printing and assembling robots require good teamwork, electronics, programming, and logical skills. The robot kits offer a valuable project for any age group, and we can only hope to see more of these robots roaming around our living rooms and classrooms. You can follow them on Twitter and Facebook for the latest developments. Let us know your thoughts on these new kits in the 3D Printable Robot forum thread on 3DPB.com.