Robot Wars: MonsterBorg vs Trilobot Base Kit

By Marc de Vinck. Posted over 2 years ago.

The MonsterBorg ($257) from PiBorg is a robust robotics platform for your Raspberry Pi. It features a custom motor driver: the ThunderBorg. This allows you to easily control a variety of DC motors directly from your Raspberry Pi. The kit includes four high-torque 300 RPM metal geared motors, a well-designed aluminium chassis, 105 mm off-road tires, and a mount for a Camera Module.

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No soldering is required. All you need to do is add your Raspberry Pi, almost any standard variant will do, and you are ready to tackle the outdoors. PiBorg claims you will get up to three hours of run time on ten AA batteries. Adding a camera, GPS, and some additional sensors could make for a great autonomous outdoor robotics platform capable of withstanding a fair amount of abuse.

The Trilobot ($54.12) from Pimoroni is a sturdy Raspberry Pi-based robotics kit. It was designed with educational use in mind, so it also has great documentation and example files. The Trilobot features 2WD, breakout headers for additional sensors and accessories, six-zone under-bot lighting, status LEDs, and a front-facing ultrasonic sensor for measuring distance.

The PCB is labelled for ease of use, even for a beginner. Pimoroni has a full-featured Python library to help you get up and running quickly. You can pick up the Trilobot with or without a Raspberry Pi, so if you are lucky enough to have an extra one and want to build a bot, this is a great choice. Just remember, if you go for the version without a Raspberry Pi, you’ll also need a battery and a USB card for your Raspberry Pi to get going.