Vincross’ Mind Kit Provides Everything Needed to Build Modular Robots

Lenovo-backed robotics startups Vincross garnered high praise two years ago for their six-legged HEXA robot, which was designed as a learning tool for those interested in robotics. The company’s latest offering follows the same learning suit, only this time it comes as a modular platform, allowing users to piece together different add-ons to give it new abilities.

According to Vincross, the Mind Kit is the easiest way to get started in the world of robotics, stating:

“We provide you with a robotics-optimized single-board computer, a software system built entirely for programming robots (MIND OS), all the robots accessories you could dream up and a community forum with tutorials, help and like-minded robot lovers. With Mind Kit, we give you all the tools to build your own robot.”

The Mind Kit is designed around a central module — the Cerebrum, which acts as the robot’s brain, features an Arm Cortex-A53 Quad-Core SoC, and is capable of performing complex AI computations using computer vision. It also sports 54 programmable pins, 6X USB Type-C ports, and onboard Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n.

Add-on modules available for the Mind Kit include a Servo Controller (capable of driving up to 20 motors simultaneously), Robot Battery (Lithium-ion @ 40A max), LiDAR (for use with SLAM, has a 3600 FOV), Mic Array (6X microphones and speaker), and IR/Distance sensor modules. The Kit can even take advantage of mobile base units, such as a Rover Base (complete with port for stacking other modules), a Soccer Base (same as Rover but with an ejectable soccer ball for playing games), and a Tank Base with a high payload capacity.

The Mind Kit is programmed using Vincross’ Mind OS, which is based on the Linux kernel and can be integrated with other systems, like OpenCV, ROS and other AI libraries. Vincross is currently crowdfunding the Mind Kit on Kickstarter with pledges starting at $99 for the base kit, and $249 and up for extra add-on modules.