ActiveMedia Robotics sucks

As part of my Phd work, I have three P3-AT robots, from ActiveMedia Robotics, to work with. They are market towards research labs, so I would expect they could be easily modified or adapted to suit research ideas.

I wish ! They are less versitle than a tuna fish !

For example, they have an onboard computer with five USB ports. The trouble is that two of them are mounted almost on top of a wheel axis to allow a connector to be plugged in. The other three are mounted so close to the robot hull, that the only way to plug in connectors is to unmount the onboard computer. To do this, the robot hull must be almost all complete dissambled. Conclusion, only three USB ports can be used provided that you have specially thin USB connectors and time and patience to tear the robot apart.

Then I tried to mount a Sick LMS-200 laser, a fairly standard piece of hardware in mobile robotics. The trouble is that the laser requires 24V and the robot only has available 12V. ActiveMedia provide a package to connect the laser to the robot, but it costs $ 2.500 ! It should be noted that you can buy a DC-DC converter for less than $100 !

I fail to understand what possibly can they gain from preventing people to use their robots. Again I must agree with Bill Gates when he said that robotics are at the same point that computers where 30 years ago: big, disfuntional and confined to research labs.