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!

Floating spherical robots dance in space

I just had a major “the future has arrived” moment when I saw this video, taken aboard the ISS, of three spherical robots doing precision formation flying in zero-g. Note that the video embedded above is clearly time-lapsed–they’re not actually moving that fast. Here’s another video (with inevitable Strauss accompaniment) that shows two of the bots orbiting each other at actual speed. They maneuver using compressed carbon dioxide. It’s all part of MIT’s SPHERES project. [via BotJunkie]

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Awesome wall-climbing robots, including a “snail”

Roboticists at Israel’s Ben Gurion University, led by Dr. Amir Shapiro, have posted a cool video on YouTube showing four of their wall-climbing bot designs in action:

First, a magnetic climber that has compliant magnetic wheels and is capable to climb on ferromagnetic surfaces. This robot can be used for inspection of ship hull or bridges. Second, is a Snail inspired wall climbing robot capable of climbing on non metallic surfaces using hot melt glue. The robot secretes the adhesive at the front and peels off the track from the wall at the bottom leaving a trail behind just like the snail does. Third, is a robot that uses sticky wheels in order to attach itself to the wall. It simply has 3Ms sticky tape on the wheels. It can climb on smooth surfaces like glass. Fourth, is a four legged wall climbing robot for climbing on rough surfaces. It has 12 claws made of fishing hooks mounted on each footpad, and it climbs like cat or other rodents.

I think the second bot, the “snail” one, is my favorite. It starts around 0:30. [via Bot Junkie]

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Complete hexapod part set on Thingiverse

Complete hexapod part set on Thingiverse

Thingiverse user Daniel (“mind”) has uploaded a complete set of files to laser-cut all the pieces of this sweet SpiderBot hexapod. He comments:

A hexapod with servo joints. This design is quite big and needs strong servos but looks really cool…I used 20 HD-2213MG Servos…If you use other servos you need to modify the embeddings for the servos and servo horns. You may make the upper and lower legs shorter to get shorter leverage. Finally the parts get assembled with M2 thread rod and nuts.

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Robotagger

A cool use of GML by Golan Levin and Jeremy Ficca, called Robotagger: GML (Graffiti Markup Language) drawings from 000000book.com are converted into DXF via a small Processing utility. Motion paths for a robot arm are planned from this DXF using Rhino and MasterCam. The ABB 4400 series arm is wielding a 2″ Montana Hardcore […]

Continue Reading Becky Stern