This is the modified GrowbotŪ that I built
The Growbot is a fairly small robot and has lots of room for expansion. It is based on the Basic Stamp 2 microcontroller from Parallax It has two Appmodules available for it, one is a plug-in breadboard, and the other is a point to point soldering / wire wrapping prototyping board. Both of the Appmodules plug into the 20-pin headers on the Growbot, giving power and access to all of the Basic Stamp's I/O pins.
This kit is very good, but is not quite for beginners because of the programming that is involved. About the only improvement that this robot could use is to replace the photoresistors with faster and more directional phototransistors. Which would improve the line tracking abilities of the Growbot. The Motors could also use improvement because they are only mounted with velcro and they are hard to get perfectly aligned. If they are not aligned correctly the robot will curve a little when you program it to go straight.
The Instructions are very good, but they don't cover any electronics theory, which would be nice for people who are just getting started in electronics. It would also be nice to have more in-depth programming references in the instructions, there are some but it can be confusing to beginning programmers. Parallax does have a complete reference to PBasic available for download on there website: www.parallaxinc.com
The Growbot requires a computer with a serial port and DOS or Windows to program it. The software is included in the kit.
This is a great robot kit, with lots of room for expansion and it is fun. It is a great learning expirience for beginning programmers and roboticists.
