Kenny The Echidna

Kenny is a 1980’s Echidna mark bomb disposal robot built by Brisbane company Evans Deakin Industries Ltd. that was donated to Curtin a decade ago. Kenny was named after the Echidna in the classic children’s show Goodnight Captain Possum.

In 2019, Curtin faculty handed the robot over to CRoC; resulting in the start of a project to renovate and repurpose Kenny into a base platform that any member can use for learning and upskilling in path planning, localisation, and navigation.

The current scope of this project consists of replacing all electronics in Kenny with modern electronics, designing a gearbox and drivetrain, and making a basic control system using motor controllers and an Arduino. Future plans include creating a full Robot Operating System (ROS) software stack.