Robotic Arts

Robotic Arts is a small robotics engineering venture based in Hayward, California, operated as a sole-practitioner practice focused on open-source hardware and software for mobile robotics. The project targets educational users, hobbyists, and entry-level robotics researchers who want an accessible, affordable foundation for learning robot programming and navigation.

The central hardware project is ATOM, also referred to as Nano Atom, a compact mobile robot base built around the Robot Operating System (ROS). ATOM evolved from an earlier four-wheeled skid-steer design through iterative development, progressively refining the mechanical platform, electronics integration, and software stack. The robot base is intended to serve as a versatile educational tool that allows students and makers to experiment with autonomous navigation, sensor integration, and ROS programming without the cost or complexity of industrial-grade platforms.

On the software and firmware side, Robotic Arts has developed and published several open-source ROS packages and low-level drivers available through the GitHub organisation page RoboticArts. A ROS driver for the Bosch BNO055 nine-axis inertial measurement unit (IMU) provides serial communication, along with calibration and configuration tooling, enabling robot builders to integrate accurate orientation sensing into their ROS-based systems.

The jitbus project is a lightweight and flexible communication protocol designed for cross-platform use, with reference implementations targeting Arduino microcontrollers, STM32-family microcontrollers, and Linux systems. jitbus is intended to simplify reliable data exchange between the robot's main computer and peripheral embedded controllers managing motors, sensors, and actuators.

Additional software work includes atom2_expressions, a ROS-compatible package that provides a friendly interface for giving the ATOM2 robot platform facial or display-based social expressivity, enabling researchers and educators to explore human-robot interaction concepts with the platform.

Given the small and individual scale of this venture, verifiable commercial product information, revenue data, and formal certifications are not publicly available. The work is primarily open-source and community-facing in character, with a presence on GitHub and social media under the handle @RoboticArts1.