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!
Stuart “Mr. Retro” Sandler built a super retro robot from plans found in a 57-year-old copy of Boys Life he’d purchased from eBay. Stuart had heard about the robot as a teenager and wrote to the magazine for the copy of the plans. They sent him a photocopy but left out a couple of key […]
In the run-up to the Hardware Innovation Workshop (May 14-15), we’ll be introducing aspiring companies and makers competing in the “pitches with prototypes” contest. First up is Falkor System’s Pet AR. Drone. The product is still in development, but CEO Sameer Parekh imagines it as a personal drone for extreme sports photography. Doing a little BASE jumping? Let your drone follow you down while the camera rolls. He calls it “out of body” recording.
Kansas City programmer Michael Overstreet wanted his own high-performance humanoid robot to experiment with, but was deterred by the $12,000 pricetag of an off-the-shelf DARwin-OP. Though a significant fraction of the cost is tied up in the top-of-the-line servo actuators the design requires to perform at spec, Michael believed he could build his own “clone” of the fully open-source design, at substantial savings, by 3D printing as many pieces as he could in fused filament, on home equipment.
Well, really we’re looking to attract robot enthusiasts, but robots won’t be turned away. If you’re a member of a hackerspace or school robot club sign up to participate in the meetup right here and join robot fans around the world. Everyone who registers will get a free PDF download of MAKE’s Volume 34–which just so happens to […]
We are excited to announce that MAKE’s Volume 34 is here and on sale now. The new issue is filled with 21 projects and includes a special “Robot Uprising” section filled with half a dozen robot projects and profiles of robot makers. The cover features Eric Stackpole, one-half of the inspiring OpenROV project, a maker-made underwater robot with a great story behind it. There’s also a project to build your very own CoffeeBot, a simple, programmable robot with a perky personality. There’s even a project to turn a tube of Blistex into a small linear actuator, a robot-ready mechanism for creating straight line motion.
Calling all robots and the people who love them: MAKE is hosting its first International Robot Meetup Thursday, April 25, in the MAKE offices and live on Google+. Joining us on a special Google+ hangout on air at 6pm will be David Lang and Eric Stackpole, co-founders of the OpenROV underwater robot project; Judy Aime’ Castro, […]
I’ve already shared some images of combat and humanoid robots from RoboGames, but there’s a lot more to see than just that. Here’s a slideshow of “the rest”, which there was quite a lot of.
