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!
Sixteen teams gathered today to determine whose autonomously-navigating vehicle would be the fastest around the Sparkfun headquarters in Boulder, CO. Four-wheeled rovers (typically built on RC car platforms) dominated the entries, but there were three flying UAVs, and one spheroid (Nathan, with “labrat”, pictured at right). One team had been designed a tethered model rocket […]
Here’s a fun little social experiment. Its creator, Kacie Kinzer, explains: Tweenbots are human-dependent robots that navigate the city (NYC) with the help of pedestrians they encounter. Rolling at a constant speed, in a straight line, Tweenbots have a destination displayed on a flag, and rely on people they meet to read this flag and […]
MAKE contributor and robotics author Tod Kurt put up this short video and how-to on hacking tiny, cheap servo motors for continuous rotation. Anyone who’s done a lot of miniature robotics building probably knows the hardware hack to turn a regular servo motor into a continuous-rotation gearmotor, by removing the mechanical stop and the servo […]
From Southern University of Denmark’s Robot Laboratory comes this lawn mower bot, controlled by a Bluetooth connection to a Wiimote. Welcome to the CASMOBOT website!
Man, check this beast out, from a builder in Norway. Looks like it might be built around the Lynxmotion Hexapod Phoenix. A-Pod is an ant inspired hexapod robot with a 2 DOF abdomen (tail), a 3 DOF head with large mandibles. 6 legs with 3 DOF each. Total 25 servos. This video demonstrates body movement […]
Bits4Tots is a charity that seeks to bring a hands-on learning experience about making and robotics to kids who otherwise might not have the opportunity. A $25 donation buys a robot kit and a child’s participation in a bot-building workshop at Robot City, a robot store (that’s right, a robot store!) in Lakeview, IL. Bots4Tots
If you’re lucky enough to own one of the SERB robot kits from Oomlout, you’ll likely be interested in this Instructable, which shows you how to add a simple touch-switch bump sensor to the front of your bot. Add Obstacle Detecting Whiskers to Your Robot More: Review: SERB Robot kit SERB robot with Wii Nunchuck […]
