With CTRL the robot you create the future.

It is a small robot with very big possibilities. Named ‘CTRL the Robot’, this robot arm looks every bit as impressive at the big industrial robots costing several hundred thousand dollars. However, this scaled-down version is designed to be affordable for homes, schools and small businesses.

CTRL the robot

Created by the in house team at Robotics Evolved, the dream has been to create a whole new category of desktop-sized robot arms.

CTRL the robot enables your computer to perform manipulation of real objects via software. It gives you access to technology that has been locked away in large corporations factories.

CTRL shares the same DNA as large industrial robots, it has brushless dc servo motors with zero backlash cycloid gearboxes and high resolution encoders. It is very rigid, has dual ball bearings in its joints and offers sub millimetre accuracy. CTRL provides a true plug and play experience, it has no exposed wires or assembly requirements, works right out of the box. It is a printer like experience. Plug it in and run an application or code your own software. With code and CTRL you create the future.

It’s tricky to describe CTRL the robots unlimited applications, just like it was tricky to describe the iPhone in 2007 or how they struggled to describe the applications of a personal computer in the 80's

You can use CTRL for anything from cooking to entering million dollar competitions or even enhance your career programming robots for Woodside. There are unlimited possibilities that you can enjoy with your own personal robot.

Please give us some feedback, we are keen to improve CTRL the robot and our campaign. Online feedback form

Download: Press Kit for media outlets

CES 2017 Launch

We launched our flagship product prototype, CTRL The Robot at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES 17). See us with our manufacturing partner, Jetta, at booth 41853. Jetta is responsible for the BB8, Sphero and many other robotic products.

Jetta- Manufacturing partner - Robotics Portfolio

With your support, CTRL The Robot is to be the first of many innovative products for the home and office automation markets. It is envisaged that the arm will employed as a manipulator that will empower the computer to do real world tasks under the control of software.

You will be able to use the included 'Motion CTRL Studio' software to easily run diagnostics, visualise movements and script interactively. CTRL supports all programming languages, so you can easily write your own robotics apps anyway you like. It will ship with several applications that will be open source for a great out of the box experience.

The product will work out of the box with no assembly or calibration required. Simply plug it in to a computer via USB. We want to get it into manufacturing ASAP so you can have it on your desk!





To ensure we are successful, we have engaged a commercialisation partner, Jetta. Jetta is a global company that designs and manufactures a wide range of robotics products. Recently they made the BB8 robot for the Star Wars movie. They have a suite of many similar products. Jetta has over 1000 engineers and 3 factories with more than 25K employees. Jetta will work hand-in-hand with our amazing Design and Engineering team. We are launching our product on their stand at the consumer electronics show in Las Vegas from 5-8th Jan 2017.

We are working closely with Jetta to ensure that the product meets reliability, cost and performance targets. With Jetta and other order fulfilment partners on board, we are confident that we can successfully bring the first modern true Revolute Robot Arm to the home and office desktop.

Problem and solution

Robotic Arms are currently rare and expensive with few people owning this technology. They are consigned to factory floors and are used to power large manufacturing corporations.

Currently, in order develop robotics, you require an exhaustive amount of experience and knowledge across several engineering branches including mechanical, electronic and software fields.

Traditionally robots for the home user have required you to design, assemble and trial your robot in its proprietary software application.

Robotics Evolved with CTRL The Robot will make it a level playing field without proprietary lock-in mechanisms or hidden protocols in software. We will provide products using the "great service at a good price" model.

CTRL The Robot is for all people! It empowers the home and office by providing access to technology that has previously only been available to a limited few.

How it works

All robots require controlled motion. We use a custom cycloid gearbox design with a pass-through encoder that we conceived, designed and prototyped.

You'll need an HTML5 capable browser to see this content. Play Replay with sound Play with

sound 00:00 00:00

The gearbox is highly efficient and can be back driven. It has multiple contact points and offers zero backlash. The robot is structurally compliant and rigid.

CTRL The Robot's brushless DC servo with cycloid gearbox

We are employing a purpose-built brushless DC servo that has the perfect characteristics for smooth rotation and high torque.

We are also using the latest field-orientated control firmware algorithms for true digital motor control. By using these techniques we gain amazing power density and performance.

Developer Friendly

CRTL has an text console for conversational control and a high speed binary protocol. CTRL enumerates as a usb serial device. You can program it on any computer and in any language.

We will provide open source reference examples. So you can plug in and start using it any way you like straight out of the box.

From Prototype to Production

How did we determine our funding goal?

We decided to set the goal at the minimum amount we need to have 100% certainty that we will deliver on our promise. Funding will help us design for manufacturing and production process and mostly the costly engineering set-up costs like plastic tooling etc. This huge expense is why we are crowd funding.

Project Delivery Timeline:

Many years of hard work then...

January 2017 - Kickstarter Project

January 2017 - CES 17 - We will be showing our working prototypes

Feb 2017 - Kickstarter Successful? ...We commence retail design

April 2017 - First retail prototypes

April 2017 - Testing and trials

May 2017 - Possible design adjustments

June 2017 - Production begins,

July 2017 - Rewards start shipping, Innovation starts

Summary

Own your own modern desktop robot that is accurate and repeatable, easy-to-use.

6 axis revolute desktop robot arm

Custom designed Brushless DC servos

Backdrivable Record and Playback

Breakaway end tooling, open source

Human arm reach >500mm

Expected capacity >750g

Rigid and compliant structure, Accurate and Repeatable <0.2mm

Conversational serial text console and high speed software interface

With code, and CTRL The Robot, you can create the future!

Download: Press Kit for media outlets