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!
yergacheffe writes – I had recently purchased a pair of 5V stepper motors and a motor driver shield from the fine folks at adafruit industries which seemed perfect for spinning the knobs. The question was how to connect the steppers to the knobs. As it happens I had also just bought a gear set from […]
Alex at Tinkerlog has been enamored with Braitenberg vehicles recently. Here’s his latest batch of “tiny Braitenberg vehicles.” I was hugely inspired and influenced by Valentino Braitenberg’s book (Vehicles: Experiments in Synthetic Psychology) when it first came out in the early 80s, so I love to see people experimenting with the different “emotions” that can […]
Super cute robot drummer – Let’s make robots.
YouTube user Ookseer posted vids of these hyperactive little vibrobots he made from pagers motor, watch batteries, and bits of tin. He writes: If you want to read more about them and how to build them it’s on my blog. All I ask is that if you build one (or ten!) send me photos! Drunken […]
I love all of the fun, inspiring work being done in robotic found-art sculpture. Bot sculpture, built out of junk, is one of the folk art forms of the early 21st century. One of the mad practitioners of the form is Mario Caicedo Langer, of Bogotá, Colombia. Check out his Flickr photostream for other awesome […]
The Temporary Music Machine is just as its name implies. It’s meant to be used for only a limited amount of performances, and then the parts are reused for another project. The machine works by using two binary counters controlled by the performer. These counters are then mapped to chord structures and drum sequences. The […]
Every other week, MAKE’s awesome interns tell about the projects they’re building in the Make: Labs, the trouble they’ve gotten into, and what they’ll make next. By Kris Magri, engineering intern One of my favorite tools here at Make: Labs is the plastic bender. The coolest thing about it is using the variac, a giant […]
