eduMIP is a robotic platform developed by UCSD COORDINATED ROBOTICS LAB.
There is an article about eduMIP.
The kit includes (almost) everything to build a Mobile Inverted Pendulum. The only thing you'll need is a Beaglebone Black or its variants.
The design is open-source. CAD designs are available under the CC BY 4.0 License and software are available under the 3-Clause BSD License.
Also, Beaglebone Black and its cousin are renowned for its openness both in hardware and software.
You can buy it from Renaissance Robotics. International shipping is available.
I recommend picking Beaglebone Black Wireless + Robotics Cape or Beaglebone Black + Robotics Cape + Wifi Dongle option because the design of the body is intended mainly for the combination of Beaglebone Black (Wireless) and Robotics Cape.
If you use Beaglebone Blue as the microprocessor board, you have to modify the body though it is quite easy.
Wireless connectivity is quite useful anyway, especially for mobile robots.
Beaglebone Black Wireless and Beaglebone Blue use Texas Instruments WL1835MODGBMOCR Wi-Fi module which is TELEC-approved.
But I'm not sure the board itself is legal to use in Japan.
There are some instructions for assembling the robot. The last one is useful if you use Beaglebone Blue.
- Official GitHub Repo
- Hackster.io
- Laboratory for Computational Sensing and Robotics, Johns Hopkins University
What I wish I knew before I start:
- You'll need a soldering iron to attach harnesses to the motors.
- When you mount the Lower Bulkhead to the powertrain unit, you should be aware of the direction. You can look up pictures on hackester.io.