Raspberry Pi Zero robots are hardly new – in fact, in our Pi Zero launch issue (#40) we featured a fully functional Raspberry Pi Zero robot before the board was even out! The thing we like best about Pi Zero robots is that they’re always quite inventive and different (such as the Matchbot), and BURT is no different.

The full article can be found in The MagPi 44

Created by Average Man himself Richard Saville, BURT stands for Boxey Unintelligent Robot with Tracks. “I had attended Pi Wars back in December with my other robot, ‘AverageBot’,” Richard tells us. “When the new Pi Zero came out, I wanted to try my hand at making a mini robot using the things I had learnt through Pi Wars.”

It’s a remote-controlled device, so not truly autonomous, but it’s still an excellent little project. BURT comprises a custom-designed plywood chassis that can be rapidly revised and remade, a custom PCB ‘face’ with a couple of LEDs that react to the movement of the robot, and a series of motors. Motor drivers and remote controls finish off the robot to make it work.

“It’s not complex at all in terms of features,” Richard points out. “BURT has no sensors or anything clever – simply two motors and basic controls (hence the ‘Unintelligent’ part of the BURT name). The complex part is putting it all together and working out where everything can go, whilst trying to maintain a small footprint. Everything is compact and fiddly, but that was always the aim.”

BURT is still a work in progress, but Richard seems happy with the way it has turned out so far: “I aimed to make a small basic robot that could move around; that part works as intended, and the media centre remote control does the job well. BURT seems to be able to negotiate a range of different terrains with ease.”

Some of Richard’s plans to upgrade BURT should help to make it more autonomous. First on the agenda is to try to add a line sensor, much like the CamJam EduKit robot. The current power source, a series of AAA batteries, doesn’t last very long either, so he’s considering replacing it with a rechargeable LiPo one: “LiPo batteries still scare me a bit after seeing some videos of them ‘going bad’, but I may give it a try.”

Asides from BURT, Richard does have other Pi projects planned.

“I’ve got a really cool project partially completed for Father’s Day,” Richard reveals. “My dad is a huge Pink Floyd fan and has never see them play, but of course they don’t play live as Pink Floyd anymore. To become #1 son, I’m making him a Pi screen unit, coded with Pygame, that will let him choose a country and see all the live gig videos. I can’t get him a ticket, but I can take him back in time (kind of)!”

Robots and time machines with the Raspberry Pi, then. Richard does have a major tip for anyone wanting to give a robot like his a go, though: “If anyone wants to try something similar, remember the old rule and don’t make the same mistakes as I did: ‘measure twice, cut once’.”