Homemade 5-DOF manipulator arm
Antonb of Lets Make Robots built this excellent looking five-degree-of-freedom arm using pieces of Polystyrene plastic, that he laid out and cut to shape by hand.
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!
Robots, part III
Stunning photos from Boston.com – Robots, part III Robots continue to grow in their importance amongst law enforcement, military use, medical research and care, space exploration and entertainment, among other tasks. Robots recently in the news include Russia’s decades-old Lunokhod rovers – recently photographed from Lunar orbit, the naming of “Curiosity”, NASA’s next Mars rover, […]
Spiderbot walking mechanism
I love this spider-like walking mechanism, spotted on the MAKE Flickr pool. Here are some of the deets: The walking action uses the Klann linkage, specifically, configuration E006. The motors are Solarbotics GM17, from Technobots, which will generate a decent torque from 5v upwards, and a nice scurry at 12v. Pivot bolts are all M3x10 […]
Remote-controlled “RoboPlow”
Rob Klinkey (Charles, IL) built this scrappy (scrapey?) little R/C snow plow with a 50″ blade, 6-wheel drive, 660 amps of power, 10 watts of LED lights for night plowing, and an on-board webcam. I like how it looks like a cross between a gas grill and a coffin. RoboPlow From the pages of MAKE: […]
Make: Robot Build, Dispatch #2
We’re gearing up (gawd, we have got to stop using that!) for the launch of the Make: Robot Build. We sent Dispatch #2 of the project newsletter out today. We have nearly 400 people signed up and we’re already starting to hear people’s ideas for the build. We’re psyched! Starting next week, we’ll get into […]
Roomba-bashing for bot parts
Dino, of Dinofab, has been getting cheap Roombas off of eBay (as low as $20) and using their parts to make other bots, like this “RoverBot” above. I found the motors in the Roomba to be very user friendly. The have a belt driven planetary gear reduction transmission that provides very high torque and they […]
Gentlemakers, start your robots!
I recently placed an order for some vibration motors from BGMicro — a a neat little hobbyist-focused ‘tronics seller out of Garland, Texas. They had vibration motors for 69¢ so I threw 10 in my shopping cart. When I told my cohorts at Twin Cities Maker about the deal, a bunch of the guys pitched […]
