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!
Need a robotic arm to do your evil bidding? Then look no further than the Robotic arm kit available in the Maker Shed. You command the gripper to open and close, and control wrist motion of 120 degrees, an extensive elbow range of 300°, base rotation of 270°, base motion of 180°, vertical reach of […]
In this weeks show, Rik and Frits are taking a look at one of the oldest, yet still most popular simple and fun hobby robot projects: “The Sumo”. Also in this show, a look at a very impressive piece of a hand made full metal robot that looks like it is ready to explore Mars. […]
Remember MakerBeam, the T-slot variant that began as a Kickstarter project? MakerBeam is a Mini-T open-source building system. Mini-T is a miniature version of T-slot (a technology that is widely used for industrial automation, robotics and machine enclosures.) Not only is it small enough to work as a model building system, but it’s also precise […]
Shep’s quad flexpicker packs 6 NXT microcontroller bricks, 22 motors and servos, and 26 sensors and muxes, and takes the form of four delta robots grabbing bricks from a conveyor. The grippers are pneumatic and are controlled via IR signals. So sweet! This system uses four parallel robots which are fed using two conveyor belts. […]
Here at headquarters, we’re cranking on producing the next issue of MAKE, Volume 27, themed Robots! What better way to celebrate than to host a fun, simple robot contest? We liked the open-endedness of our Volume 26 Karts and Wheels Contest (must have wheels and carry a person), and the cool, creative entries we got […]
Draw a bounding box around an object in the camera’s field of view and Zdenek Kalal’s open source Predator algorithm will continuously track it in real-time with just a standard webcam. That’s right, get Kinect-like body tracking without the fancy hardware. With all those front-facing cameras out there, just think of the mobile applications! Minority Report-style HCI, face tracking, improved visual search, and video stabilization are a few examples.
Here’s a weekly look into what some robot building nerds are doing for fun. In a special edition this week, we are happy to host with Mr. Ignoblegnome as a guest in Frits Lyneborg’s workshop. Links of interest: Ignoblegnome, see his robots here Frits Lyneborg, host Isotope’s Laydybug Nuumio’s LadyBugBot clone Skaterj10’s Freedom555bot Tyberius’s Giger […]
