Robotics

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!

Maker Camp: Robotics with Erin RobotGrrrl

Maker Camp: Robotics with Erin RobotGrrrl

Week 5, Tinkering Tuesday at Maker Camp. Meet RobotGrrl and her posse of robotic birds, and learn about robotics and Arduino.

Maker Camp, sponsored by MAKE magazine, was a virtual summer camp for teens, with a focus on creating, building, and discovering.From July 16th through August 24th, 2012, 30 awesome projects were made in 30 days, on Google+. Maker Camp is free and open to all.

Visit Makezine.com/maker-camp for more information.

Stoney, a Jewish Mourning Robot

Stoney, a Jewish Mourning Robot

This grave-maintaining robot was conceptualized by Itamar Shimshony and built by Zvika Markfeld: As per Jewish customs, it places stones and flowers on the headstone, and occasionally cleans the grave with water and a cloth while patrolling around it. Hardware is based on an Arduino Mega 1280 sitting on top of a Roomba, and connected […]

Lego Wheelchair

Lego Wheelchair

Lego builder Simon “Burf” Burfield built the world’s first Lego wheelchair: Currently still a prototype, the LEGO Wheelchair can move a 90kg person. It uses 6 NXT’s to drive 12 NXT motors (2 per NXT for maximum power output) which are connected to 12 Rotacaster multi-directional wheels. Using these wheels will later allow for side […]

SnakeBot Climbs Poles and Arms

SnakeBot Climbs Poles and Arms

This clip demonstrates recent work to develop compliant controllers for our lab’s snake robots. These controllers allow the robot to automatically adapt its shape to changes in its environment. Until now most of our motions, including pole climbing, have been remote-controlled. In this video the robot autonomously climbs a 4″ pole, transitions to a 2″ […]

Mindstorms Holonomic Robot

Mindstorms Holonomic Robot

Ray McNamara of Launceston, Tasmania, built this omnidirectional robot using a Lego Mindstorms parts, Technic motors, and is programmed in RobotC. I really love how Ray explains exactly how he designed and programmed his robot! A Holonomic platform is one of the many types of Holonomic drive trains — it can move forward and backward […]