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!
Agnewgraph I is a device that traces Spirograph curves (technically, hypotrochoids). Unlike other systems that compute and plot hypotrochoids mathematically, Agnewgraph I operates a physical Spirograph much as a human being does. In order to do so, Agnewgraph I contains two electromechanical subsystems–a force-sensing pen and a pen transport mechanism–plus a Parallax Propeller chip as […]
I love how the platform at the top of this robot always stays level. Nicely done, guys! Delta Robot using Wii and Arduino
Dr Petar Kormushev and Dr Sylvain Calinon from the Italian Institute of Technology (IIT) have developed a robot learning to flip pancakes. The skill is first demonstrated through kinesthetic teaching, where the user grasps and moves the robot to provide an initial example of flipping the pancake. During demonstration, the robot is gravity-compensated to move […]
Personally, I find the mark of a really gifted Lego artist is that his or her work makes you look twice and say, “Wait, that’s made out of Lego?” Renowned English builder Peter Reid (aka Flickr user legoloverman) consistently achieves that effect, for me, by obsessively permutating all those little Lego odds and ends that aren’t shaped like conventional bricks or plates at all–minifig arms, hands, and tools; Technic elements; pneumatic hose connectors; etc. These arms are part of a recent “assembly line” diorama of a future factory assembling his iconic “Turtle” robots. [via The Brothers Brick]
…but non-lepidopterists will probably be hard-pressed to figure that out just by looking at it. The video rates high on the jaw-dropping scale. The ChouChou electric butterfly is, in fact, a lepidoteroid robot, of sorts, from Japanese firm Tenyo Magic. It perches, flexes and flaps its wings, and flutters around its jar when disturbed. Preorderable now from JapanTrends.com. [via NOTCOT]
MAKE Managing Editor, Keith Hammond, sent us the link to this 60s robot Pavlovian dog simulator, created by Fred Chesson, and done with relays! The robot dogs shown in the photograph were developed by the author in the early Sixties, when the teaching-machine “fad” was approaching its heady zenith. At the time of the design, […]
Researchers at the University of Bristol are hard at work designing robots that can draw power by digesting food directly.
