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!
Remember the 3D-printed mechanum wheels I blogged a while ago? Well, maker ROB K636 built a cool mecanum bot powered by four battery packs, an arduino, screw shields and what looks like a motor shield. I really like how he created colored wheels using regular old Rit clothing dye. My question is, why use mecanum […]
Popping into Harvard Bookstore proves to be a delightful treat. Being greeted by the old bookstore smell as you enter the door is intoxicating enough, but imaging my surprise finding one of the owners in the back making books on their new Espresso Book Machine 2.0 from On Demand Books, LLC.
Metalworker Des Bromilow built a “life” size replica of Bender Bending Rodriguez from Futurama, complete with cigar and beard that he never wears. Better still, he documented the process in meticulous detail in a series of posts on his blog. [Thanks, Nicholas!]
There are three movements, controlled from 3 axles, and the gears on the axles have prime numbers of teeth (23, 43, 59). So technically the movements will only repeat every 58,351 turns of the small gear. There’s also a semi-random toggle on the head motion, so it will never really quite repeat. Almost all the parts press fit and/or lock together, so the whole thing can be disassembled to a pile of parts, then reassembled, adjusted, and set going again without tools.
Becky’s preliminary robot build. Note the use of a sewing bobbin as an idler wheel. We’re absolutely thrilled with the response we’ve gotten to the Make: Robot Build! The participation on the Forums, Flickr, and on contestants’ personal project blogs has been so inspiring. We’ve heard from a lot of people that this project inspired […]
At last count, 625 makers have decided to create a bot for our awesome Robot Build, and I’m one of them! My concept is a bristlebot built with four toothbrushes and a mini CD. I bought some wee vibration motors, one for each brush, and right now, I’m trying to figure out a bunch of […]
Spotted on the MAKE Flickr pool is this wonderful rendering of a CoasterBot, using the plastic CD spindle spacers. Other parts used include: Pololu Baby Orangutan-168 robot controller, Solarbotics GM6 gearmotors, salvaged push buttons, LiPo battery from a broken RC helicopter, Pololu ball caster, some scrap perf board, screws, nuts, and aluminum pipe cut for […]
