Simple homebrew robot gripper
Peter Jacob of Lets Make Robots put together this incredibly detailed tutorial on how to make a simple robot gripper by hand using a cheap micro servo, plexiglass, rotary tool, and a tiny blowtorch.
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!
Make It Last Build Series: The robot plants are in bloom!
We asked MAKE illustrator Damien Scogin to create some drawings so that folks could better understand the functioning of the basic robot plant design we’re using in the Micochip/Energizer Make It Last Build Series, Project #2: The Robot Plant. As we’ve said, you don’t have to make yours this way, this is just one idea, […]
Kinect-powered autonomous quadrotor
Man, and I thought the hacks on the Wii sensor bar came fast and furious. Amazing what people are doing with the Xbox Kinect and how viral all of these hacks quickly become. This one, an autonomous quadrotor, uses the Kinect Sensor for navigation and obstacle avoidance. It was done as part of the STARMAC […]
Top 10: Steam power!
With a very few notable exceptions, there was really nothing punk about The Fad Which Shall Not be Named. Steampop might really have been a better word. Fortunately, the steam in these posts is not, generally, even aspiring to punk status, although the word itself may, regrettably, appear a couple times in the copy on the linked pages. Please accept our apologies–we were excited–and enjoy this hot steamy content entirely on its own merits.
Top 10: Robots doing stuff that scares the &$#! out of me
In truth, I regard the “robot uprising” meme with about the same level of seriousness as the “zombie apocalypse” meme. I suppose robots becoming sentient, independent, organized, and uncontrollably violent is at least plausible, but if I let all the plausible apocalypses keep me awake nights, I’d never sleep again. So, in the spirit of fun, here’s a collection of videos showing the mad, mad foolishness that roboticists have been up to equipping our future overlords with their tools of power. Or, in a more serious vein: Look at all the amazing stuff robots can do these days!
Parrot AR.Drone quadcopter teardown
The iFixit crew recently disassembled a fully functional Parrot AR.Drone to see what makes it tick. From the teardown you may notice that the hardware seems pretty accessible. The gear’s just begging for a mod.
Mil-spec snake robot
I’m digging this Israeli military robo-snake(!) of which each segment packs its own power supply, sensors, actuators, and microcontrollers. Looks like the business end has a camera ringed with IR LEDs. (See the snake in action in this video.) [Via Dvice] More: Modular snake robots Amphibious snake-like robot “ACM-R5” Swimming robot snake
