Meet Seiko-chan, the balancing robot
Ever wish you had a friend to unicycle with you? Well, I don’t actually know how to unicycle, but I still want one of these robots to follow me around.
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!
“Tratsh” can
Although the promised link to a step-by-step tutorial seems broken, this video by YouTuber msibbern, which shows off his pneumatic rattling rat-in-a-trash-can prop, contains lots of good nuts-and-bolts footage and is inspirational as well as amusing.
Wheels that morph into tank track
Love this design of a robot/wheel chair wheel that can morph from a single wheel into a multi-wheel tank track, as terrain conditions dictate. Galileo Mobility Capabilities [via Solarbotics’ Twitter feed]
Classic gear design text free on Google Books
If you are curious about the technical details of designing and laying out gears and gear trains, you can download a complete, free, public domain copy of the 1922 edition of the American Machinist Gear Book from Google Books right now.
Beetleborg, certified Creep City
Cyborg insects, hybrids of insects and machines, have been under development in military R&D for a few years now (no, seriously). Now, electrical engineers at the University of California, Berkeley have developed an implantable radio-controlled neural stimulating device that allows them to control, with a fair degree of accuracy, the flight of an insect, in […]
How-To: Make a pneumatic grave-escaping ghoul
Interesting video tutorial from YouTuber casafear1 showing how to create a pneumatically actuated zombie “ground-breaker.”
Post-apocalyptic pneumatic werewolf
I have to say that of all the improbable phrases I’ve run across blogging, “post-apocalyptic pneumatic werewolf” may well be the the weirdest. Which only makes this haunted house prop by Terra of HalloweenForum.com (her tagline: “Terror of the Cul de Sac”) just that much more, well, wicked, than it already is. (Sorry.) Make: Halloween […]