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!
The work of Dutch physicist-turned-artist Theo Jansen has inspired many, including us here at MAKE. His amazing “Strandbeest” (beach animals), giant wind-driven walking sculptures, are staggeringly cool. A number of miniature machine and robot builders have tried to incorporate some of Jensen’s ideas into their own work. Here, a Japanese maker has built a tabletop […]
Before BigDog and LittleDog, Boston Dynamics Director Martin Buehler was messing around with single-leg motility, here via the Robot Jockey, a sort of semi-self-balancing pogo stick under a motorcycle frame. On Buehler’s website, you can see the evolution, from these monoped prototypes up to the four-legged critters we see bouncing around in BD test videos […]
Robothon 2007 is over. The results from the fifteen different competitions, from 12 lb combat robots to micro-mouse to mini-sumo, are now posted on the Robothon site. Multi-category winners included Team Xbot, Pete Miles, and Cathy Sexton. Robothon 2007 Results – Link
IRobot released their new Looj gutter-cleaning robot ($99) today and showed off their forthcoming ConnectR, a telepresence bot built on (literally) the success of the Roomba line of bots. The ConnectR has the same basic form-factor as Roomba with a webcam mounted on it. It can be controlled over the Web and offers remote audio […]
You may have bumped into Clayton Bailey’s work online before. He’s a crazed robot sculptor, ceramics artist, armorer, ray gun builder, and all-around Dail-esque weirdo (and we mean that in a good way). Here’s a profile of him from Weird America. The Ceramic and Metal Sculpture of Clayton Bailey – Link
Robots Dreams (by way of Waziwazi) has posted new videos of the forthcoming Tomy i-Sobot, a very nimble and sophisticated mini-humanoid (especially given its $299 pricetag). Can’t wait for this thing to come out to see about its hacks potential. The i-Sobot is available for pre-order on Amazon (and elsewhere) and is supposed to “in […]
This hexapod robot by animatronic artist Matt Denton is sure to freak your freak. Truly impressive. Micromagic Systems (Denton’s animatronics site) – [via] Link
