The WLKATA MT4 Is an Affordable, Hacker-Friendly Robot Arm Launching Soon on Kickstarter
The WLKATA MT4 seems like the rare robot arm that's affordable enough for kids, but also capable enough to be a “real” robot for adults.
Serious industrial robot arms are incredibly expensive — very much a “if you have to ask, you can’t afford it” sort of thing. But at the opposite end of the spectrum, most of the more accessible robot arms on the consumer market are just glorified toys. Fortunately, we’re seeing more development in the area of affordable robotics and that is changing. One example is the WLKATA MT4 that is launching soon on Kickstarter.
This isn’t WLKATA’s first robot arm. They already sell the Mirobot, which is a 6-axis arm that costs $1,850. They also sell bipedal and quadrupedal robots that cost a lot more. But the MT4 is much more affordable, with special pre-order pricing as low as $570.
Even at that low price, the specifications indicate that the MT4 will be more capable than the Mirobot by some measures. It has better repeatability (0.1mm vs. 0.2mm), a higher payload (600g vs. 250g), and greater reach. But it does have two fewer degrees of freedom (4+1 vs. 6+1) and is a palletizer style, which means the end effector is always pointing down.
The repeatability and payload are pretty decent, but the reason that this is more than a toy is the control. The robot itself has a Microchip ATmega2560 microcontroller and it’s “multifunctional extender box” has a “chip” specified as an Xtensa LX6 with Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, BLE, UART, and so on — which sounds an awful lot like they’re using an ESP32.
That hardware is great, because owners will be able to use any control software and development platforms they like. From block-based programming to full-on NVIDIA Omniverse scene simulations, users can do whatever they want and that enables so much potential. Start with the basics, such as with Blocky or Arduino, and then move onto the “real” robotics stuff, with ROS, TensorFlow machine learning, and OpenCV computer vision. All of those and a lot more will have official support.
WLKATA will also offer accessories to increase the MT4’s capability. For example, the AI Vision End Tool will put a camera on the end effector. That’s perfect for implementing something like object recognition to pick up certain items.
If that intrigues you, you can sign up for updates on the WLKATA website. You can also put down a $1 deposit to secure pre-order pricing before the Kickstarter launch, which they anticipate happening in May.