Most useless machine
Inspired by Claude Shannon’s Ultimate Machine, Instructables user SaskView designed this excellent most useless machine.
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 visits MicroRAX HQ
In November, I had the opportunity to travel to Seattle for a Magic: The Gathering tournament. While I was there, I visited the headquarters of TwinTech, a small company run by identical twin brothers, Steve and Chris Burrows, who manufacture a small rack-building set called MicroRAX. At the time, a similar set, called MakerBeam, was […]
Awesome flying drawbridge
This thing is called the “Slauerhoffbrug,” and it lives in Leeuwarden in the Netherlands. The road section is lifted on a single massive counterbalanced arm up to 90 degrees in the air. There’s a good photo gallery, including aerial views, over on frozenly.com. [via Neatorama]
Hidden ping pong gun is best office prank ever
Some enterprising pranksters at Willow Garage hid a ckBot robot in the ceiling of their office, then used it to shoot ping pong balls at an unsuspecting co-worker.
Amazing sci-fi short film done for $300
This special F/X-laden five-minute robot invasion flick is about giant robots “coming to destroy my small city. I think maybe it’s an attempt to make the city look bigger and more important… :-),” says the director, Fede Alvarez. About the production, Fede says: It took US$300 to shoot the live action, and then maybe a […]
Nifty caterpillar BEAM bot
I love this bicore with five “slavecores” caterpillar BEAM bot. It is a photovore (light-seeker) with two operating speeds and rechargeable Li-Ion batteries (via USB). The builder has an Etsy shop too where you can buy his bots. Middle Creek Merchants Robot Page Middlecreek Merchants Etsy Shop
Disembodied mechanical hand looks unamused …
Nick Ramage’s ‘Fingers‘ exude a certain type of surrealist creepiness … all the while, tapping away out of what seems to be sheer boredom. Makes for an odd sort of tension, no? Those with an extra $730 around can purchase their own from the limited edition over @ Laikingland [via Adafruit]