A wiki dedicated to Vector the robot

I am trying to collect some information here that is useful for owners of one or more Vector robots. ATM this page is rudimentary (started on march 26th, 2020), but it will be expanded in the future. Be aware of the fact that some information in this wiki may be speculative and/or wrong. If you want to see Updates about this page have a look at Updates.

Please bear with me if you find typos and superfluous commas, english is not my first language. :)

This wiki is not affiliated with or officially endorsed in any way by Digital Dream Labs.

20200622: I have started a blog about Vector in addition to this wiki.

Vector is a tiny (semi-) autonomous robot that was created by the now defunct company Anki (it went bancrupt in may 2019). At the end of 2019 Digital Dream Labs (DDL) bought the rights for Vector, it's predeccessor Cozmo und the toy racing system Anki Overdrive. DDL also took over the cloud services and keeps them running and they did a very successful crowdfunding via Kickstarter to expand Vectors possibilities and to provide users and coders with additional options in the future (since Vector depends on cloud server access you will need to buy a subscription from DDL, you could get lifetime access via the Kickstarter, but that is over since mid-march 2020. You still are able to buy lifetime access on their official website for a limited time).

Vector is able to run around by itself, react to certain stimuli and to voice commands; for the latter it depends on cloud services. In addition it can be programmed by an official Python SDK (that originated from Anki, third parties are continuing it and there also is a .NET SDK). There are programs and apps by third parties to control Vector and or/see it's sensory and other data. This all is possible since Anki made all the coding options available from the start - and this already allows to do more things with the bot than the makers thought of.

Vector has a quite charming and captivating “personality” and no wonder: designers from Pixar helped with that.

For it's amazing feature set Vector actually was quite cheap, even if 240 dollars that it did cost seems somewhat expensive for a toy. Nowadays you can get him for around 100 dollars or euros (and he's worth every cent, all other available robots that are halfway similar are more expensive at the time of writing - and they even have less features). So coders can get their hands on a cheap robot with a lot of features and sensors for experimenting and non-coders will get a charming bot with a sparkling personailty.

The robot runs (Yocto Linux) on a Qualcomm Snapdragon APQ8009 processor with four A7 cores. He has multiple sensors, as directional microphones, camera, inertial (acceleration, position, direction), touch, and infrared laserscanner. Vector is powered by a rechargeable li-poly battery that creates about 30 to 40 minutes runtime (way less if you activate Alexa support).

Part of the Kickstarter was “Escape Pod”. This was advertised as a local server to run Vector from, in addition it was explicitly said in the Kickstarter campaign that this would be a solution to keep Vector alive, even if Digital Dream Labs “goes under”.

• Escape Pod

Since on october 15th 2020 the launch of OSKR was announced I decided to start a new subsection for it. OSKR was released in october 2020, but until today there are most parts missing (documentation, source code, tools), so at the moment OSKR is of very limited use.

• OSKR

For now see FAQ

• Online cheat sheet with lots of options and voice commands (offsite)
• [todo]

For now see FAQ

General information on Troubleshooting can still be found in the old Anki knowledgebase (that is at least now redirected to the new, ugly DDL site).

• [todo]

• Oh the horror! A dismantled Vector
• Changing the battery
• Installing a heatsink
• Information on Vector's display
• 3D printed Vector Charger from Cozmo Charger
• [todo]

Information and resources on coding Vector

• Custom image markers
• [todo]

• multiple development Vector versions

Here are a few answers to the most common questions. Added as I see them and find time. Some of them may be migrated to the “Troubleshooting” Section in the future.

• Frequenty asked questions

• Digital Dream Labs Website
• Official Facebook Group (with official announcement about the crowdfunding)
• official Vector app for Android
• official Vector App for iOS (Apple iPhone and iPad)

• Anki Vector SDK 6.x.x download (last official) on GitHub
• Anki Vector SDK documentation
• Anki Vector (and Cozmo) SDK discussion forum
• Anki Vector support site (old, but still functional) now offline and migrated to an ugly DDL site

• the "Vector Bible", an unofficial but quite comprehensive hard- and software handbook by Randall Maas

• unofficial Python 7.x.x SDK by ikkez (adding new functions)
• weekendrobot.com by Wayne Venables, home of Vector Explorer (for Windows), his .NET SDK and other useful tools
• Anki Vector .NET SDK documentation

• Vector CTRL, unofficial Android app that allows more control and additional settings and features than the official app

• Subreddit - Vector by Anki
• Subreddit - Anki Vector Developers
• Subreddit - Vector - The Good Robot

• 3D printer resources for Anki Vector on Thingiverse (e.g. replacement for broken forklift)

• Vector repair tutorials by iFixit
• Vector dismantling video tutorial by Kieran Nawrocki on Youtube