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 If you are building a robot for a robotics competition, class project, or your own personal joy - prototyping is a crucial step in engineering design. After you have decided what you want your robot to do and adjusted for any specific parameters, you can start to brainstorm what your design will be. Once you have your design sketched out or a CAD model created, it is time to test and refine. In simple terms, robot prototyping is the process of taking your ideas, creating a preliminary mock-up of your robot design, testing, collecting data, adjusting, and more testing until we get to the desired level of performance. Be sure to test your mechanisms, designs, and even your robot performing the tasks that are required of it. The purpose of this process is to ensure your robot design is corrected for any flaws and can complete the task as it is designed. Your tests should reflect the purpose of the type of robot you are creating. Autonomous mobile robots such as field robots should be challenged with tasks related to their purpose. For example, this photo shows a prototype of a lift that we are working on using parts from the Studica Robotics FTC Starter Kit.

What is the Purpose of Prototyping?

The main goal of prototyping for robotics is simple - test your design and gather data, review the results, and find ways to fix any issues and improve your robot's performance. Think of it as a journey - as you identify each change and adjust your robot prototype, you will need to re-test it. Have patience, this is not a one-and-done. As you progress through this process, you can gradually increase the fidelity of your prototype. What does it mean to increase the fidelity of your prototype? This simply means that you continually enhance and add details to your prototype to the point where it bears a strong likeness to what your final robot will look and behave like. Prototyping can also be useful for automation and part manufacturing.

Advantages of a Robot Prototype

At Studica, we have a lot of experience working with teams in robot competitions. In fact, Studica Robotics is a Global Partner and exclusive supplier for the WorldSkills Autonomous Mobile Robotics Competition. We've seen the many reasons why creating robot prototypes is important. First of all, creating the prototype allows you to effectively communicate your design if you are working with your robotics team or another group. It gets everyone on the same and is an ideal opportunity to solve any misinterpretations. It also identifies any design flaws or errors and provides the opportunity to collaborate with your team. Advantages of robot prototyping include shorter development time, reduced cost, better performance, and the knowledge you gain as you troubleshoot issues. Prototyping is an important part of engineering design.

Tools for Building a Prototype

Let's talk about building your prototype. The purpose is to build and make changes quickly and of course, track that data. Think like a minimalist. What is the bare minimum that you need to build to test the items you are looking to solve? Use simple materials that you can easily build and adjust to replicate your design ideas. Remember your prototype should be fluid and evolving, it should not stay the same for a long time. What should you build with? Robot prototypes can be simple. Use what you have on hand – PVC pipe, wood, cardboard, springs, spare parts, and get that roll of duct tape ready. Use clamps, weights, and vices to help hold everything together. Have an old chassis lying around? Use it. You can also 3D print any parts that you don’t have on type for this stage. Studica Robotics also offers a variety of robot parts and robotics components including mechanical structures, motion components, and electronics. Our channel and other structural components as well as motion components are ideal for prototyping. Studica Robotics is utilized in the classroom for teaching, for robot competitions, in the industry, and by hobbyists for prototyping robots and automation cells. Prototyping equipment varies based on the sophistication of the robot being designed. 

Studica Robotics offers a variety of wheel options. We also offer flex wheels that can be modified for better intake for a robot.

This year, after being postponed in 2020, the EuroSkills 2021 competition was held in the beautiful city of Graz, Austria. The event included over 400 competitors from 19 countries. Kudos to all who made this event such a success.

With all the added complexities of hosting an event with COVID-19 related challenges, everyone did an amazing job! Studica proudly supported the Mobile Robotics competition at this event with our Studica Robotics products and know-how. Studica Robotics is an affordable robotics building platform that offers structural and motion components that work easily together. There is no need for a machine shop and Studica Robotics components are compatible with many existing build systems. As a leading provider of educational technologies and over 35 years of experience in the fields of STEM and robotics, Studica is committed to the development of skills across the globe. We were excited to see the different robots that the teams came up with and are looking forward to the next event in St. Petersburg in 2023.

Mobile Robotics at EuroSkills

Mobile Robotics engineers design, maintain, develop new applications, and conduct research about potential applications for robots. Mobile Robotics is quickly evolving and plays an important role in a variety of industries including manufacturing, aerospace, medicine, agriculture, and aerospace.

At this year’s Mobile Robotics competition participation was lighter than usual due to the pandemic. However, the teams who participated all did a wonderful job. The team from Austria had a strong performance. Team Russia won the gold with an impressive performance. Watch the video below to see Team Russia’s waste management robot in action. The Russian team came in first for the entire EuroSkills Graz 2021 event. They earned 32 medals overall.

Competing in 2023

Russia will host EuroSkills St. Petersburg from August 16-20, 2023. This event promises to be the biggest and greatest EuroSkills ever. We are looking forward to the new Mobile Robotics competition with many new participants. This event was originally scheduled for 2022, however, with the schedule changes caused by the pandemic all future EuroSkills competitions will continue to take place in alternate years to WorldSkills competitions. The next WorldSkills competition will be held in China. WorldSkills Shanghai 2022 is scheduled for October 12-17, 2022. Studica is also a Global Partner and the official exclusive product supplier for the WorldSkills Mobile Robotics Competition.