Drawbots and other Retro Robots

Drones & Vehicles Rockets
Drawbots and other Retro Robots

If you haven’t seen it yet, Mike Barela has been doing a fun series on Adafruit on Robot Archeology, looking at robot technologies of the past (and some still present) and the projects you can do today to create some of these retro robots.

The most recent installment of the series features drawbots, There’s a video of a simply Popsicle stick and servomotor Spirograph and links to a bunch of other drawbot designs and projects.

YouTube player

In some of the previous columns, Mike has covered the Nintendo R.O.B., robot toy banks, Radio Shack robots, Turtle bots, and more. One of the recent columns I really liked was on Garco, the 1953 robot, built by an engineer in his garage, that became a spokesbot for Walt Disney.

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Gareth Branwyn is a freelance writer and the former Editorial Director of Maker Media. He is the author or editor of over a dozen books on technology, DIY, and geek culture. He is currently a contributor to Boing Boing, Wink Books, and Wink Fun. His free weekly-ish maker tips newsletter can be found at garstipsandtools.com.

View more articles by Gareth Branwyn

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