The Pololu 3pi+ 2040 robot is a palm-sized, high-performance mobile platform based on the Raspberry Pi RP2040 MCU. Its many features include dual quadrature encoders for closed-loop speed or position control, line sensors, front bump sensors, a full IMU (3-axis accelerometer, magnetometer, and gyro), six RGB LEDs, and a graphical OLED display. This Standard Edition version is assembled with 30:1 MP 6V Micro Metal Gearmotors, which offer a good combination of speed and controllability.

Available Options:

Standard Edition Kit
Assembled

The 3pi+ 2040 is a versatile, high-performance, user-programmable robot that measures just 9.7 cm (3.8″) in diameter. At its heart is a Raspberry Pi RP2040 microcontroller (like the one on the Raspberry Pi Pico), a 32-bit dual-core Arm Cortex-M0+ processor running at 125 MHz, which can be programmed with C, C++, Arduino, or Python. The 3pi+ 2040 has 16 MB (128 Mbit) of flash memory that ships preloaded with a MicroPython interpreter, so you can get started right away by plugging into its USB C port and editing the included example Python programs. For advanced users who want to customize or enhance their robots with additional peripherals, the robot’s power rails, power system controls, and microcontroller’s I/O lines can be accessed via several 0.1″-pitch expansion ports.

The robot also features a unique power system that runs the motors at a constant 8 V independent of the battery charge level, so the speed of the motors does not vary with the battery voltage.

What else you will need

four AAA batteries: the 3pi+ robot works with both alkaline and NiMH batteries, though we recommend rechargeable NiMH cells
a USB C cable to connect the robot to your computer for programming and debugging

Assembling the kit version

The following video shows the steps to assemble a different version of the 3pi+ robot (the 3pi+ 32U4 OLED robot), but these steps generally remain the same for the 3pi+ 2040: