Robotics

Making a robot can be an incredibly rewarding experience. It’s the perfect combination of creativity, engineering and problem solving. However, if you’re just getting started in robotics, it can also be overwhelming. To make things easier for those who are just starting out, we’ve put together some tips and tricks to help makers bring robots to life! From the basics of assembling your robot to software implementation, these pointers will give you everything you need to get started on your robotic adventure!

TRRSTAN, the audio controlled cellbot

The folks over at cellbots.com are at it again. Meet TRRSTAN, a cellbot controlled via the audio jack on a mobile handset. The site is a little vague on the details, but whatever they’ve got going on should ultimately drive down the price tag. Add an approachable way to program it and you’d have yourself one heck of a low-cost robotics platform.

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Roila: A spoken language for robots

Roila: A spoken language for robots

The Netherlands’ Eindhoven University of Technology is developing ROILA, a spoken language designed to be easily understandable by robots. The number of robots in our society is increasing rapidly. The number of service robots that interact with everyday people already outnumbers industrial robots. The easiest way to communicate with these service robots, such as Roomba […]

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Clever grabby robo-hook

Clever grabby robo-hook

Reportedly this cam-actuated, weight-activated grabbing hook from designer Stefan Bennedahl “makes it easy to hang things like towels that tend to fall off hooks,” which I’m willing to buy into if for no other reason than that it looks like a heckuva lot of fun to use. Design Within Reach actually lives up to its name with these, which are only $10 apiece.

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Build mobile apps visually with App Inventor for Android

Build mobile apps visually with App Inventor for Android

Google’s App Inventor for Android (beta) is a tool that will help you visually design mobile apps and run them on an Android device. This should be exciting news for all the Open Blocks/Scratch fans out there as the project uses the Open Blocks Java library distributed by MIT’s Scheller Teacher Education Program.

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Hand-cast robot with geared steering

Hand-cast robot with geared steering

Robot maker Michal Zalewski sent word that his latest attempt at cat befuddlement, the tinybot mk III, has been meticulously documented and awaits your perusal. Of interest are the geared steering, relatively low-cost components, and the fact that each gear was custom designed, machined, and manually cast in his home workshop.

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