A prototype is a preliminary model of something. Projects that offer physical products need to show backers documentation of a working prototype. This gallery features photos, videos, and other visual documentation that will give backers a sense of what’s been accomplished so far and what’s left to do. Though the development process can vary for each project, these are the stages we typically see:
Proof of Concept
Explorations that test ideas and functionality.
Functional Prototype
Demonstrates the functionality of the final product, but looks different.
Appearance Prototype
Looks like the final product, but is not functional.
Design Prototype
Appearance and function match the final product, but is made with different manufacturing methods.
Production Prototype
Appearance, function, and manufacturing methods match the final product.
Prototype Gallery
These photos and videos provide a detailed look at this project’s development.
Keigan Motor is an all-in-one brushless gearless electric motor module, which is best for rapid prototyping. It has 3 good points. "Easy-to-Use", "High-Performance", and "Cooperatively Controllable" (2 or more Keigan Motors are able to work together simultaneously to perform more complex functions). These utilities of Keigan Motors make it possible to embody your ideas for robots and moving systems. We dream of a society where anyone can create robots which are convenient for their daily life or business easily and quickly by Keigan Motors.
Easy-to-Use
Keigan Motor is an all-in-one electric motor module. It includes a brushless motor, a control board with a motor driver, a BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy) chip, a rotary encoder, a flash memory and a 6-axis accelerometer-gyro sensor. You can use a portable USB battery as a power source. Also, we provide useful apps for iOS and Android. As soon as you unbox your Keigan Motor and plug it into your portable USB battery, you can control it from our app in your smartphone!
High-Performance
We also developed a high-performance brushless and gearless motor. As is well known, brushless motors have many strong points, which are preciseness, smoothness, quietness, and low-power consumption. Keigan Motor, whose maximal torque is over 2.6 lbf·in (0.3N·m) with less than 10W power consumption, rotates precisely, smoothly, and quietly. It can be controlled to any angle you like with accuracy of 0.05°.
Cooperatively Controllable
Even a single Keigan Motor is amazing, but it’s more amazing to combine multiple ones. As they don't require any wires other than power USB cables, you can design a robot with multiple motors relatively quickly. Also, we provide APIs and apps for smartphones to control them simultaneously to perform more complex functions. So you can enjoy designing and controlling your own robot.
Additional Features
Keigan Motor has a rotary encoder and a flash memory. You can record a motion by performing a movement by hand and playback it. Furthermore, you can use a Keigan Motor as an input device by relaying angles and torques while performing a movement. Also, Keigan Motor has a 6-axis accelerometer&gyro sensor to be useful for attitude control.
You can create an interesting robot or moving system by using Keigan Motors as sensors.
We provide useful apps for smartphones(iOS and Android), which are "Keigan Core" and "Keigan Camera."
Keigan Core
Keigan Core is a basic app for Keigan Motors. Not only does it enable you to control your Keigan Motors as you like, but also it supports you to design and control a robot by providing robot templates.
Assigning motors of a robot template to Keigan Motors
Keigan Camera
Keigan Camera is specialized in controlling camera.
Stepless speed control (0-250rpm)
Scheduled playback of motions
Record and restoration or playback of angles and motions
Tracking human faces with smartphone camera
Keigan Motor for Hackers
We are planning to provide open-source SDKs and APIs to use the features of Keigan Motors to the full. You can use your various devices (smartphone, Windows PC, Raspberry Pi,...) as a controller.
Swift coding sample
Developers can bring out the full performance of Keigan Motor easily and quickly. Complicated motion control can be achieved with light-weight code by using our SDK. Especially, you can queue multiple tasks and call them at any time you like.
Keigan Motor SDK enables Method chaining
For hackers
Rewards
Keigan Motor
Pledge $279 or more
Keigan Motor Camera adapter kit
Pledge $319 or more
Keigan Motor Robot Starter Kit
Pledge $919 or more
Are you a beginner in robotics? No problem! We will also release a robot starter kit for which you can create three or more kinds of useful robot without the need for special tools. It consists of two Keigan Motors, high graded black aluminum frames, adapters for cameras, and so on.
Specification
Timeline
Keigan Motor is Made in Japan and we start shipping to you in July !!
Our Dream
This is the 1st step of our dream. We dream of a society where anyone can create robots and moving systems easily and quickly. For our dream to come true, it is essential to release more and more kinds of Keigan Motor, for example, motors with large and small torque or tiny motors in size. Please support our dream!
Our Team
We Keigan Inc. are collaborated with Fuji Micro Co. Ltd. on developing and manufacturing Keigan Motors. They are an established motor company to have been creating motors for over 50 years in Japan.
Keigan Inc. and Fujimicro Co., Ltd.
Risks and challenges
We have started making production molds for Keigan Motors just now. So we are completely confident that we can deliver Keigan Motors to our dear backers. However, to arrange mass production is not easy at all. For our dream, we must make our products of higher quality and more cost-effectively than ever before. This campaign's success will accelerate and encourage us in arranging mass production.
Also, we need to develop many high-quality apps, SDKs, and APIs. We are doing our best, but we cannot deny some risks of your dissatisfaction with release dates or initial qualities.