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!
MAKE pal Jean interviewed Garnet Hertz (we covered his work in MAKE 02)“Aside from exhibiting a dead frog with a miniature web server embedded in it ( allowing web visitors to re-animate it’s limbs! ), this quest has more recently lead him to using a living roach atop a modified trackball to control a 3 wheeled robot, infra-red sensors providing navigation feedback to the cockroach, with the hope of creating a pseudo-intelligent system with the cockroach as CPU!” Link.
Chris Jang is building his own autonomous robot – “This robot is my first electronics and embedded systems project. I studied Electronic Circuits and Applications by Senturia and Wedlock for six months and then rebuilt and cross compiled my home computer systems with a Linux From Scratch book to prepare for it. This project is also the first time machining moving parts (as simple as the front suspension is, the parts do move). I’ve maintained what a friend referred to as an “mail blog” during the project. After some progress or discovery, I emailed a status report of sorts, usually with pictures and (rarely) movies attached. A coworker convinced me there is value in these emails as artifacts of the project history.” [via] Link.
I saw these last week at the Exploratorium, and they’re amazing – “A Cricket is a tiny computer that can make things spin, light up, and play music. You can plug lights, motors, sensors, and other devices into a Cricket, then program them to react, interact, and communicate. For example, you can make a cat and program it to purr when someone pets it. Or you can make a birthday cake and program it to play a song when someone blows out the candles. The PicoCricket Kit is similar to the LEGO MINDSTORMS robotics kits. MINDSTORMS is designed especially for making robots, while the PicoCricket Kit is designed for making artistic creations with lights, sound, music, and motion.” [via] Link.
Eltoozero of www.destruc.tv writes “I built this case mod to be a nearly completely authentic looking Mac Classic, but with a Mac Mini inside, playing DVD’s through the floppy and running OSX, except it’s black.” Eltoozero said he’d write up more about his project if there is interest, so post up in the comments! Link.
Cmr8286 writes “This was done for a class I took last semester. The project was to reverse engineer a product and examine with what and by what means it was made. Instead of pasting the parts up on a board and lableing them, I thought this was a better way to present this particular product. It also has a nice sculptural appeal, I feel.” [via] Link.
Don on the Wired blogs has a bit about free DIY bot creation “Microsoft and Conversagent are giving away free licenses for their BuddyScript SDK for MSN Messenger. Now developers can build their own IM bots for MSN Messenger at no charge. The free license period lasts “at least six months,” but the company will extend the licenses beyond the initial six month term for developers who create a groundbreaking bot.” [via] Link. The MAKEbot, is an AIM bot and can be found here. 2006, year of the bots.
CNET has a video of the