{"id":5058,"date":"2016-12-05T10:00:18","date_gmt":"2016-12-05T18:00:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.autodesk.com\/products\/fusion-360\/blog\/?p=5058"},"modified":"2016-12-05T10:20:48","modified_gmt":"2016-12-05T18:20:48","slug":"engimake-uses-quadbot-make-robotics-accessible","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.autodesk.com\/products\/fusion-360\/blog\/engimake-uses-quadbot-make-robotics-accessible\/","title":{"rendered":"EngiMake Uses Its QuadBot to Make Robotics Accessible"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cRobotics Is Closed,\u201d the EngiMake website declares<\/a>. \u201cLet\u2019s Make It Open.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Startup EngiMake, based in London, is the brainchild of founders Josh Elijah and Jack Scott-Reeve\u2014engineering graduates who are using Fusion 360 to make robotics accessible for a wider audience of makers.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"quadbotkit\"<\/p>\n

<\/h2>\n

 <\/p>\n

Making Robotics Easy for Everyone<\/h2>\n

Their vehicle for their vision is the QuadBot, a DIY robotics assembly kit with programmable Arduino-based electronics and 3D-printable parts. The kit is meant to be accessible for novice makers, yet challenging enough for those who already have more skills.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The impetus for the product is simple, as Elijah explains: \u201cThere wasn\u2019t a robotics package I was happy with that was easy enough to use and complex enough to do interesting stuff with.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

As an undergraduate at Manchester University, he says, he founded the school\u2019s robotics society. The design of the QuadBot, which looks something like a four-legged spider, builds on work that Elijah did in 2012 while working at National Instruments. (When he recalls the initial design, he laughs and says, \u201cIt looked like it was held together with chewing gum.\u201d)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Along the way, Elijah began teaching robotics to others and discovered that \u201cIf you know how, it\u2019s very easy.\u201d He and Scott-Reeve, who also studied at Manchester, want their product to embody that. \u201cYou take something like robotics that people are afraid of,\u201d Elijah says, \u201cand you make it super-easy to play with.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Paying Attention to Every Design Detail<\/h2>\n

In recent months, Elijah has focused on programming the robot to walk while Scott-Reeve has worked in Fusion 360 to get the parts to snap together easily. \u201cWe could get it working very quickly,\u201d Elijah says, \u201cbut it wouldn\u2019t look nice, and wouldn\u2019t be intuitive.\u201d They\u2019re taking the harder approach of refining \"quadbotfusion\"everything so that the robot is more robust and user-friendly. For example, they have spent lots of time designing a better circuit board, which is fully labeled so that even beginners can understand<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cYou have to be mad with the attention to detail on the product,\u201d Elijah adds. \u201cIf we want to make this the de facto Arduino of robotics, it has to live up to that.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

After trying Blender, Rhino, and other design software, they happily settled on Fusion 360, especially because it allows them to combine parametric modeling for the robot\u2019s legs with sculpting for the robot\u2019s curved dome. \u201cThe fact that you can do that in one software is mad,\u201d Elijah says with a smile.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

He also praises the ease of exporting and importing files, the ability to share designs online, and the rendering and animation features that allow him and Scott-Reeve to create detailed 3D models of the robot. \u201cI love the animation in Fusion 360,\u201d he says. \u201cI\u2019m a bit of a geek when it comes to that.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

He sums up his experience with Fusion 360 by saying \u201cIt gets rid of headaches. It\u2019s anti-headache software.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Getting a Design Startup off the Ground<\/h2>\n

In the second half of 2015, Elijah got into FabLab in London, then brought in Scott-Reeve. Elijah says that the six months they spent there \u201cincubated not only our idea, but also our confidence in making money that wasn\u2019t 9-to-5.\u201d \"quadbot\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

In the spring of 2016, Elijah left the engineering Ph.D. program at Manchester to focus on EngiMake. Despite occasional doubts, he and Scott-Reeve have been making it work, in part by doing freelance electronics design on the side to keep cash flowing.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

They also received \u00a32,00 from their alma mater, and in July of this year moved into the Makerversity space in central London. \u201cYou can find the money,\u201d Elijah says. \u201cYou\u2019ve got to live hand-to-mouth for a bit, but there is money out there.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Kickstarter and Beyond<\/h2>\n

Over the past several months, the growing EngiMake team has been working toward the launch of a Kickstarter project, which they see as the real test of the QuadBot\u2019s appeal. For all the positive feedback they\u2019ve received, Elijah says, \u201cIt doesn\u2019t really hold much sway until people are willing to pay for it.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Kickstarter effort has meant endless work on the QuadBot\u2019s software and hardware, but also on the company\u2019s website and online tutorials, as well as business aspects such as sourcing for components, manufacturing relationships, and marketing promotions.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

As Elijah points out, \u201cThere\u2019s an immense amount of work to do,\u201d including lots of learning on the fly for engineers with little background in business. \u201cI\u2019ve never worked so hard in my life,\u201d he adds.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Their hope in to hit a sweet spot in terms of pricing, capabilities, and complexity for their robot. If they succeed, that will allow them to grow beyond their initial market of makers to reach younger students.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to hit schools with this,\u201d Elijah says. \u201cThat\u2019s where I want it to go, but I don\u2019t want to do this until I\u2019ve proven it.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"quadbotmasses\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Opening Up Robotics for the Masses<\/h2>\n

Elijah finds all the hard work personally gratifying. \u201cI know this is what I want to do,\u201d he says, \u201cbecause I love doing it.\u201d Beyond that, though, he also has a vision for what EngiMake can accomplish in the world:<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cI really want to open up robotics,\u201d he says. \u201cI want to get people inspired with robotics. What Arduino did with microcontrollers, we want to do for robotics with this.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

EngiMake\u2019s Kickstarter is now live at getquadbot.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Become a robot maker with QuadBot – a 3D printable, programmable walking robot. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":894,"featured_media":5063,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-5058","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fusion","dhig-theme--light"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nEngiMake Uses Its QuadBot to Make Robotics Accessible - Fusion Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Become a robot maker with QuadBot - a 3D printable, programmable walking robot.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.autodesk.com\/products\/fusion-360\/blog\/engimake-uses-quadbot-make-robotics-accessible\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"EngiMake Uses Its QuadBot to Make Robotics Accessible - 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