Neat demonstration of proportional and PID control systems
Liam built this impressive robot, then used it to demonstrate the difference between proportional and PID control.
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!
Dirt-cheap robotics prototyping environment with Android
Tim Heath and Ryan Hickman’s Truckbot could be built for under $20 (excluding mobile). That’s pretty impressive for such an open and accessible robotics prototyping environment. Using a laser-cut cardboard chassis, $3 micro servos, and a bare bones Arduino, the duo have assembled one of the cheapest platforms to come along in some time.
1984 hexapod weighed 300 lbs, could lift more than 1 ton
Odex 1, from Odetics, Inc. ; is a six-legged walking robot that weighed only 300 pounds. Its onboard computer could be operated remotely and the robot moved under its own power. It is capable of reconfiguring its shape to be tall and slender or short and squat, and able to walk in either configuration or anywhere between the two. Each leg is able to lift 400 lbs, the “legs” are versatile enough to be used as manipulators as well. Odex is capable of lifting over 2,100 lbs vertically, or carrying over 900 lbs. at normal walking speed. To display Odex 1 agility, engineers commanded the robot to walk to a truck, get on the truck, and then get off and actually move the truck.
iHexi iPhone controlled Hexapod robot
In this video robotics student Robert Stephenson demonstrates an iPhone app he wrote to wirelessly control his Hexapod robot.
Meccano/Nexus One lava-lamp-testing centrifuge!
Neil Fraser’s Lava Lamp Centrifuge is 10′ across, weighs 50 pounds, and spins at 42 rpm generating 3 Gs. It uses a Nexus One’s accelerometer to measure g-force. Excellent! Will lava lamps work in a high-gravity environment such as Jupiter? This topic spawned considerable lunch-time discussion and no clear consensus emerged. Most people initially assumed […]
Will somebody think of the robots?
As part of their campaign to raise money for a new facility, the hackerspace i3 Detroit produced this cute video imploring you to please think of the robots and help their cause.
‘SapienServer offers web-enabled robot
Kevin Haw created this Robosapien web server, using an Arduino he bought in the Maker Shed. He writes: In late 2009 I bought an Arduino from the Maker Shed Store and began playing with it. Early on I was very intrigued by two separate projects: Karl Castleton’s RoboSapienIR and the basic WebServer that came with […]