The feature is available in version 2.3.1, with setup controls and live position graphs in the Kinisi web client.

Watch it move​

In this demo, motor 0 drives a 30 cm arm to 90°, 180°, 360°, and back to 0°. The camera shows the complete movement in one continuous take, alongside the position response graph.

Motor angles and platform poses​

Motor position is continuous: a target of 360° represents one full turn from the current origin. You can set a target, read the measured position, or reset the position origin to zero.

For mobile robots, platform position control accepts x, y, and heading targets in the world frame. Distances use meters, and angles use radians in the SDK commands. The web client's Angle units setting lets you work with degrees for angular targets, speeds, and graphs; your choice saves automatically in the browser.

Two controllers working together​

Position control builds on the velocity controller. The position PID turns the remaining distance or angle into a speed target, and the velocity PID drives the motor to track that speed. Each controller has its own Kp, Ki, and Kd settings. Platform control also has separate tuning for translation and heading.

Initialize and tune velocity control first, then initialize position control. Maximum speed and position tolerance let you choose how quickly the mechanism moves and how close it must get to the target.

Try position control​

Our tutorials cover the setup, explain the parameters, and show the web client controls:

• Velocity control tutorial
• Position control tutorial

Update your firmware and SDK to get started:

• Controller firmware v2.3.1
• Python package on PyPI
• JavaScript SDK and web client v2.3.1
• Arduino SDK v2.3.1

What's exciting about v0.4?​

• Smarter motor drivers. New DRV8873S drivers add SPI settings, fault reporting, and current sensing for each motor channel. That gives the controller more information about what the motors are doing.
• Motion sensing on the board. A BMI088 accelerometer and gyroscope give your robot a way to measure movement and rotation.
• Temperature sensing and lasting memory. A TMP102 measures board temperature, and FRAM can keep settings and data when power is off.
• More ways to connect. USB-C, UART, I²C, and eight GPIO pins give you room to add sensors and other hardware.

Kinisi still brings four brushed DC motor channels and four encoder inputs together on one board. Encoder feedback lets a controller track how far and how fast each motor turns.

The board also includes a replaceable fuse, reverse-polarity protection, and a TVS diode for short motor-power transients.

What's next?​

The next step is to bring up and test the manufactured boards. v0.4 uses a new motor-control interface and pin map, so it needs firmware made for this revision before driving motors. We'll share more as testing progresses.

The image above is a fresh KiCad render of the board design. Follow along at VsReality Robotics on Instagram.

What would you build with four motor channels?

The main improvements are:

• Connection monitoring. The SDKs can keep track of an idle connection with lightweight heartbeats. When the configured timeout expires, the controller stops driving the motors. Normal commands count as activity, so busy connections don't need extra heartbeat messages.
• Automatic motion updates. Subscribe to encoder or robot-position readings at your chosen interval instead of requesting each reading separately. Every update keeps its original measurement timestamp.
• USB disconnect handling. USB disconnect notifications now stop motor output and clear the old control session. Reconnecting does not automatically resume movement.

The familiar commands for requesting a single motion reading are still available. Python and JavaScript handle heartbeats in the background; Arduino sketches service them through poll() in the main loop.

Get the release​

Update your controller firmware and SDK together to use the new features:

• Controller firmware v2.1.0
• Python SDK v2.1.0
• JavaScript SDK and web client v2.1.0
• Arduino SDK v2.1.0

You can also open the Kinisi web client to connect from a supported browser.

We're continuing to improve the tools that help you build and test your robots. This release makes connecting to a controller clearer and gives you more useful information about its movement.

The main improvements include:

• Clearer connection setup. Your software can identify the connected board and know when it's ready to use.
• Timestamped motion readings. Position and rotation readings now include when they were measured. Python and JavaScript can synchronize time with the controller; Arduino uses time since the controller started.
• Better feedback. Clearer error messages help explain when a command cannot be completed.
• An improved web client. Reorganized controls and readable timestamps make encoder and robot-position readings easier to follow.

Get the release​

Download the firmware and the SDK for your project from GitHub:

• Controller firmware v2.0.0
• Python SDK v2.0.0
• JavaScript SDK and web client v2.0.0
• Arduino SDK v2.0.0

Upgrading from version 1? Update both the controller firmware and your SDK together. Version 2 uses a new communication format and isn't compatible with version 1.