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!
The Maker Shed is having a huge Spring cleaning sale. Now is the perfect time to pick up a Pololu 3pi robot for a really great discount. Not sure what the Pololu 3pi robot does? Not sure how to program it? Not a problem, I did a how-to a while back. Don’t forget to pick […]
With my Mousey the Junkbot project in MAKE and Solarbotics’ Herbie the Mousebot hogging the limelight, folks might forget or be unaware of the fact that the original LM386-based Herbie circuit was a line-follower, not a photovore (light-seeker). Peterman921’s MouserV2 is a two-time line-following champ. It uses the LM487 audio amp chip and two downward-looking […]
With the Bay Area Maker Faire only 6 weeks away, I started getting really excited about seeing old friends from past Maker Faires. Someone I always miss in the interim is Russell. I met Russell (aka Rave Raffe) at the first Maker Faire back in 2006. He’s a sweet guy, towering at 17 feet tall […]
Gareth used Arduino + MotorShield to create Puff – the Magical Firefighting Dragon! Puff is able to Put out Fires – He Scans his Head to find the Flames – he orientates towards the Flame – and Blows it out. If he fails to blow out the Fire within 2 sweeps then the “PANIC” mode […]
Sixteen teams gathered today to determine whose autonomously-navigating vehicle would be the fastest around the Sparkfun headquarters in Boulder, CO. Four-wheeled rovers (typically built on RC car platforms) dominated the entries, but there were three flying UAVs, and one spheroid (Nathan, with “labrat”, pictured at right). One team had been designed a tethered model rocket […]
Here’s a fun little social experiment. Its creator, Kacie Kinzer, explains: Tweenbots are human-dependent robots that navigate the city (NYC) with the help of pedestrians they encounter. Rolling at a constant speed, in a straight line, Tweenbots have a destination displayed on a flag, and rely on people they meet to read this flag and […]
MAKE contributor and robotics author Tod Kurt put up this short video and how-to on hacking tiny, cheap servo motors for continuous rotation. Anyone who’s done a lot of miniature robotics building probably knows the hardware hack to turn a regular servo motor into a continuous-rotation gearmotor, by removing the mechanical stop and the servo […]
