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!
Months ago, MAKE engineering intern Kris Magri designed and built Makey the Robot, one of our major projects that appeared in MAKE Volume 19. I remember the love and passion with which she crafted the little guy, getting him ready to present to the MAKE community. You never know what impact the things you create […]
From YouTube user MechanicalSculptor comes this awesome gear-pr0n automaton, reminiscent of the work of Arthur Ganson. [via The Automata / Automaton Blog]
Recently the Maker Shed started to carry OLLO kits. What are OLLO kits? OLLO is a reconfigurable construction set for beginner robot enthusiasts. Think of them as a cross between LEGO and Erector sets. We went ahead and made one of the projects from the Action kit and learned a few things along the way. Here are a few tips when making your OLLO kit.
Interested in sensing things without using sight? So are the researchers at the Bristol Robotics Laboratory, who have developed the Scratchbot robot that can navigate by waving around a set of 18 whiskers.
Will Langford, the Tufts student who created printable shop glasses on his MakerBot and rendered Thom Yorke’s head in 3D, has now printed a Sumbot chassis for an Arduino-driven sumo. Nice work, Will! It’s so cute! Will’s page on Thingiverse More: Print your own glasses Radiohead´s Thom Yorke printed in 3D
Another year, another profusion of robot kits, toys, and showy humanoids demo’d by entertainment conglomerates and big car companies. The more things change, the more they stay the same. It wasn’t a huge leap year for the evolution of robokind, but there are definitely plenty of new tools and toys to play with, and plenty […]
Interesting article over on New Scientist about Erin Rapacki’s design for a “low-cost” robot that can be used by the wheelchair-bound to grip, turn, and push or pull on most kinds of doorknobs. Maybe my sense of how much this sort of thing should cost is way off, but $2000 still seems pricey to me, although I guess at the prototype stage it’s pretty impressive. [via Popular Science]
