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!
Advertisement, circa 1960: “One day, by simply speaking into a microphone, you may be able to control an electrical ‘gardener’ to mow the grass, cultivate the flower beds, trim the hedges and do other yard work. And all the while you’ll be relaxing in the shade.” That day is now (with a joystick instead of […]
Jim Sellers (Oregon, WI) built this lovely Slink-O-Matic Slinky-playing machine. Why? Why not? D’uh. It “slinks” a slinky for you, at times when there are no stairs and you just have to… Also useful in determining whether one is in the northern or the southern hemisphere. Due to Coriolis forces it will “slink” from right […]
On Let’s Make Robots: This clever walking robot by George Collins of Sherman Oaks, CA, that uses a plastic shoebox as an enclosure. Sterylite6000 is a large and somewhat unusual robot. Originally it was designed to use only six servos. This worked resonably well, but did not get good ground clearance on the back legs. […]
I love miniball bots and other types of ballbots where the electronics and mechanics are housed inside and the vehicle “navigates” by rolling around and bouncing off of stuff. Here’s the same basic idea, inside a cylinder (a clear paint can). It’s the Barreller, by Randy Sarafan. The way the continuous rotation servo is used […]
John Harris of Willows, CA, build TOBI the ToolBot, a robot that packs a Propeller, a TPA81 Devantech 8 Pixel thermal sensor array, Parallax HB-25 motor controllers, and 3 Ping))) ultrasonic sensors. It can carry a full toolbox and a laptop up a ramp.
Bill Gurstelle had a broom-based Bristlebot at Maker Faire Austin, but I never saw it in action. This one was built by Gregg Horton. He has an Instructable that shows you how he did it. Seems like you could easily add some sort of bumpers or other obstacle avoidance rigging so that you wouldn’t need […]
Randy Sarafan just made another simple moving bot, this time with four legs for walking: My goal with Walker Bot was to make a 4-legged walking bot that could be made in ten minutes. This bot ultimately took me three hours to make. That said, my goal wasn’t to make one in ten minutes, but […]
